The Church in South Korea flourished primarily through the persevering faith of the laity, many of whom were persecuted and martyred through the centuries. The first native priest, St. Andrew Kim Taegon was ordained in 1844 and martyred only two years later at the age of 25. In his homily for the canonization of St. Andrew and companions, Pope St. John Paul II highlighted the variety of faithful witnesses in this land, "From the 13-year-old Peter Yu to the 72-year-old Mark Chong, men and women, clergy and laity, rich and poor, ordinary people and nobles, many of them descendants of earlier unsung martyrs — they all gladly died for the sake of Christ."