Biography
Peter Choe Hyong
About Peter Choe Hyong
Peter Choe Hyong came from Gongju and learned Catholicism from his family. His younger brother Francis Xavier Choe Pang-je went to Macao to study for the priesthood. Peter served as Maubant’s assistant after the missionary arrived in Korea.
After an arrest in 1840, Peter was released. He later traveled with Andrew Kim Tae-gon to Shanghai and attended his ordination. They returned to Korea with Bishop Ferréol and Daveluy.
Peter lived in Seoul, copied religious books and made rosaries. At Bishop Berneux’s request, he established a printing shop that published Catholic books. Although he was not a catechist, he was authorized to baptize.
During the persecution of 1866, he was arrested and refused to deny his faith despite severe punishment. The bishops’ conference dates his execution outside Seoul’s Small West Gate to March 9, 1866.
Dallet’s nineteenth-century history instead gives March 10. The difference remains unresolved.
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