Thomas Choe Yang-eop

Choe Yang-Eop Thomas was born in Korea on 1 March 1821 to Saint Francis Choe Kyeong-Hwan and Blessed Mary Yi Seong-rye. while Kim received his ordination as the first Korean priest from Bishop Ferréol around that same time. Kim left with the bishop and Father Anthony Daveluy for Korea while Thomas remained behind with Father Joseph Maistre in Xiaobajiazi. Sometimes he was mistaken for a foreigner and was chased from villages; on one occasion in 1859 he was severely beaten by local authorities and non-believers and was also chased from an inn half-naked. Choe died on 15 June 1861 due to typhoid fever. Father John Pourthia heard of Choe' illness and so rushed to his side prior to the latter's death. His solemn funeral was celebrated five months later while his remains were interred in a hill behind the Baeron seminary. Parentage His father was Francis Choe Kyeong-Hwan (1805 – 12 September 1831). He was beatified by Pope Pius XI alongside fellow martyrs on 5 July 1925 and was canonized as a saint by Pope John Paul II on 6 May 1984. His mother was Mary Yi Seong-rye (1801–31 January 1840). She was made a Servant of God on 6 October 2003 by Pope John Paul II alongside her fellow martyrs and received beatification from Pope Francis on 16 August 2014. ==Beatification process==

The beatification process was transferred from its then-forum of Cheongju on 10 January 2004 to Masan. It allowed for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints – under Pope John Paul II – to grant the "nihil obstat" ('nothing against') to the cause in which Thomas was accorded the posthumous title of Servant of God: the first official stage in the process. The diocesan process opened in the Diocese of Masan on 3 December 2005 and closed on 20 May 2009; the C.C.S. validated the process in Rome on 1 October 2010. The postulation then submitted the Positio to the C.C.S. in 2014 while the latter passed it onto a board of historians for their own assessment. It was approved on 18 November 2014. Theologians voiced approval to the cause on 15 December 2015 while the C.C.S. did likewise on 14 March 2016. On 26 April 2016 he was proclaimed to be Venerable after Pope Francis acknowledged that Choe had lived a model life of heroic virtue. The current postulator that is assigned to the cause is the Rev. Kim Jong-su John. ==References==