martyrs of the M.E.P. were canonized by John-Paul II, 19 June 1988, as part of 117 martyrs of Vietnam, including 11 Dominican Fathers, 37 Vietnamese priests, and 59 Vietnamese laics: François-Isidore Gagelin (1833) Joseph Marchand (1835) Jean-Charles Cornay (1837) François Jaccard (1838) Bishop Pierre Borie, vicar apostolic of Western Tonking (1838) Augustin Schoeffler (1851) Jean-Louis Bonnard (1852) Pierre-François Néron (1860) Théophane Vénard (1861) Bishop Étienne-Théodore Cuenot, vicar apostolic of Eastern Cochinchina (1861) Korea In the mid-19th century that the first western Catholic missionaries began to enter Korea. This was done by stealth, either via the Korean border with Manchuria or the Yellow Sea. These French missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions Society arrived in Korea in the 1840s to proselytize to a growing Korean flock that had in fact independently introduced Catholicism into Korea but needed ordained ministers. 1839 persecutions On 26 April 1836, Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert of the Paris Foreign Missions Society was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Korea and Titular Bishop of Capsa. On 14 May 1837, he was ordained Titular Bishop of Capsa and crossed secretly from Manchuria to Korea the same year. On 10 August 1839, Bishop Imbert, who was secretly going about his missionary work, was betrayed. He was taken to Seoul where he was tortured to reveal the whereabouts of foreign missionaries. He wrote a note to his fellow missionaries, Fathers Pierre-Philibert Maubant and Jacques-Honoré Chastan, asking them to surrender to the Korean authorities as well. They were taken before an interrogator and questioned for three days to reveal the names and whereabouts of their converts. As torture failed to break them down, they were sent to another prison and beheaded on 21 September 1839 at Saenamteo. Their bodies remained exposed for several days but were finally buried on Noku Mountain. 1866 persecutions Bishop Siméon-François Berneux, appointed in 1856 as head of the infant Korean Catholic church, estimated in 1859 that the number of Korean faithful had reached nearly 17,000. At first the Korean court turned a blind eye to such incursions. This attitude changed abruptly, however, with the enthronement of King Gojong in 1864. By the time the Heungseon Daewongun assumed de facto control of the government in 1864 there were twelve French Paris Foreign Missions Society priests living and preaching in Korea and an estimated 23,000 native Korean converts. In January, 1866 Russian ships appeared on the east coast of Korea demanding trading and