Patrick James Byrne

Patrick James Byrne, M.M. (October 26, 1888 – November 25, 1950) was an American-born Catholic missionary who served as Apostolic Delegate to Korea from 1949 until his death in 1950.

A member of the Maryknoll Society, Byrne was assigned to missions in Korea and Japan. He served as the prefect apostolic of Pyongyang from 1927 to 1929, prefect apostolic of Kyoto from 1937 to 1940, apostolic visitor to Korea from 1947 to 1949, and the apostolic delegate to Korea from 1949 to 1950.

Byrne died in North Korean captivity in 1950. His cause for sainthood was opened in 2013.^[1]

Early life

Childhood

Patrick Byrne was born on October 26, 1888, in Washington, D.C. to Patrick and Anna Seale Byrne, both Irish immigrants. The father Patrick was the head of the bindery in the Government Printing Office in Washington. When the younger Patrick turned five years old, he was sent to live with his Aunt, Eliza O'Neil in Auburn, New York. In 1895, he entered the Holy Family School in Auburn. Uninterested in sports and outdoor activities, Byrne's favorite activity was reading. He served as an altar boy at Holy Family Church.^[2]

When his Aunt Eliza died in 1905, the 16-year-old Byrne returned to Washington. He entered Eastern High School in Washington for the 11th grade. In 1908, while sailing with his brother Ernest on a small boat on Chesapeake Bay, the boys encountered sudden high winds. Ernest was swept overboard and was lost at sea. The trauma of this event convinced him that he needed to accomplish something substantial for others in his life. He decided that the best way was to become a priest and serve as a missionary in Asia.^[2]

Preparation for priesthood

Following his mother's wishes, Byrne entered St. Charles College in Ellicott City, Maryland, the minor seminary run by the Sulpicians. It served to prepare seminarians for St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore. Bryne impressed his teachers and fellow students with his sense of humor and sharp intellect.^[2]

Byne was ordained a priest by Cardinal Giovanni Vincenzo Bonzano in Washington for the Archdiocese of Baltimore on June 23, 1915.^[3][4]

Priesthood

A week after he was ordained, Byrne was given permission by Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore to enter the Maryknoll Society. He served the community in a variety of capacities.^[4] He supervised of the Maryknoll Preparatory Seminary while it was located in Scranton, Pennsylvania, as well as the Maryknoll Seminary near Ossining, New York. In 1916, the Scranton seminary moved to Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, where it became known as the Venard Seminary. Byrne eventually served as rector of both seminaries.

In 1923, Byrne organized the first Maryknoll mission to Korea, then a Japanese territory, with him as its leader.^[5] In 1927, Pope Pius XI elevated Byrne to the rank of monsignor and named him the prefect apostolic of the city of Pyongyang.^[3] In 1929, Byrne served as a delegate to the first General Chapter of Maryknoll in Rome, where he was elected the assistant superior general. He resigned his position as prefect apostolic in August 1929, to take up his new responsibilities.^[3]

In 1935, Byrne reentered the mission field, this time in Kyoto, Japan. Pius XI named him the prefect apostolic of Kyoto on June 18, 1937.^[3] He resigned this office on October 10, 1940, in favor of a Japanese priest. After the Japanese attack on the United States in December 1941, Byrne was held under house arrest in Japan for the duration of World War II.^[4] When the Japanese surrendered to UN forces in 1945, Byrne made radio broadcasts in Japan, on behalf of the United States Army, to calm the Japanese fears about the American military occupation. US General Douglas McArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in Japan, praised Byrne for his assistance.^[4]

Bishop

Pope Pius XII appointed Byrne as apostolic visitor to Korea in 1947, which had been taken from Japan in 1945. Korea was divided into North Korea, a communist regime allied with the Soviet Union and China and South Korea, an authoritarian government allied with the United States.^[3]North Korea viewed Catholic bishops and priests as enemies of the state. Byrne took residence in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. In April 1949, Pius XII named Byrne the titular bishop of Gazera and the first apostolic delegate to Korea.^[6]

Byrne was consecrated a bishop on June 14, 1949 at the Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul by Auxiliary Bishop Thomas McDonnell of the Archdiocese of New York. The co-consecrators were Bishops Paul Marie Kinam Ro, apostolic vicar of Seoul, and Andrien-Joseph Larribeau, apostolic vicar emeritus of Seoul.^[3]

Imprisonment

Byrne was in Seoul when on June 25, 1950, the Korean People's Army (KPA) of North Korea invaded South Korea .^[7]The ill-prepared South Korean forces fled before them. Byrne was given the chance to evacuated Seoul with other Westerners, but he refused to leave. By June 28th, the KPA was in control of Seoul. Byrne managed to hide indoors for two weeks before finally being arrested in July. The North Koreans then put him on trial. The judge told Byrne he would be executed if he did not broadcast a denunciation of the United States on the radio; Byrne refused.^[8]

The North Koreans then transported Byrne and other civilian captives to Pyongyang for a second trial. Larry Zellers, a Methodist missionary in custody there, described how the KPA guards brought Byrne into the room and threw him on the floor. Zellers said he looked half-dead.^[8]On September 5th, Byrne and 58 other civilian captives were sent by train to Manpo, a city on the Yalu River border with China.^[8]Approximately 750 American prisoners of war (POW)s joined them for a six-week quarantine.^[8]

On October 31, 1950, a KPA major nicknamed "Tiger" told all the prisoners that they would walk to a POW camp 110 miles (180 km) in the north. On the third day of the march, Byrne delivered a general absolution to a crowd of prisoners on a hillside. The weather grew colder as the prisoners passed through the Kangnam Mountains; most of the prisoners, including Byrne, were wearing light summer clothes. At one point, Bryne gave his blanket to a Methodist missionary who was in worse shape.^[9] Whenever the column stopped for a rest, Byrne would start praying.Soon others joined him. Zellers described Byrne during the march,

“Bishop Byrne was a holy man. He would walk among the group, and all eyes would be on him. He was so friendly, but also scholarly. The more you got to know him, the more you realized he was a person of deep feeling."^[8]

Death

On November 8th, the prisoner column arrived at a POW camp near Hachangri.^[4]The ordeal had severely weakened Byrne. The prisoners were moved into poor housing that did little to keep them warm in temperatures reaching below zero degrees Fahrenheit. Food rations were small. The camp commandant force the prisoners to perform calisthenics every morning in the cold. Byrne soon came down with pneumonia and grew very weak. On November 24th, the day before he died, Byrne made this statement to his friends.

“After the privilege of my priesthood, I regard this privilege of having suffered for Christ with all of you as the greatest of my life.”^[4]

Byrne died in Hachangri on November 25, 1950, at age 62. The priest Thomas F. Quinlan buried Byrne in his own cassock.

Veneration

Byrne's cause for sainthood was opened in 2013.^[1]In 2017, a special commission of South Korean bishops began studying whether Byrne and 80 other Catholics who died in North Korean custody could be considered martyrs.^[9]

Additional sources

• Lane, Raymond A. (1955). Ambassador in Chains: The Life of Bishop Patrick James Byrne (1888-1950) Apostolic Delegate to the Republic of Korea. P.J. Kenedy.
• Crosbie, Philip (1955). March Till They Die. Browne & Nolan.
• Ryan, Eileen (July 1, 2017). "Marching to Martyrdom in Korea". Maryknoll Magazine.