Thomas Choe Yang-eop

Choe Yang-Eop Thomas (1 March 1821 – 15 June 1861), also spelled Ch'oe Yang-Ōp Thomas, was a Korean Roman Catholic priest during the Joseon dynasty, who travelled across Eastern Asia as a seminarian and priest before settling at last after a period of persecution back in his homeland where he administered to hidden Christians until his death.

His father was canonized as a saint in 1984 and his mother was beatified in 2014. 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.

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.