1. Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert, affectionately known in Korea as Bishop Laurentius Bum Sehyeong was a Roman Catholic French bishop in Asia.
17 Facts About Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert
1. 2.
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert was most notable for his Christian missionary work among the Koreans, he was appointed by Pope Gregory XVI in August 1836 when first Bishop Barthelemy Bruguiere died in Manchuria.
3.
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert was born at Marignane, to parents who were residents of the hamlet of Callas, in the commune of Cabries in the Department of Bouches-du-Rhone.
4.
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert then enrolled at the seminary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society on 8 October 1818.
5.
On 5 March 1819, Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Paris, and ordained on 18 December of that same year, having received an indult from the Holy See due to his not having reached the legal age.
6.
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert then set sail from France on 20 March 1820, bound for missionary service in China.
7.
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert's first stop was in Penang, Malaya, where he was asked to replace a teacher at the College General, who had taken ill.
8.
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert taught there from April 1821 to January 1822.
9.
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert was not very certain, though, whether there was any urgency or he was aware of the circumstances prevailing in the island.
10.
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert reached Singapore on 11 December 1821 and spent about a week there.
11.
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert might have been the first priest to celebrate Mass on the island.
12.
In February 1822, Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert sailed for Macau, but unable to go directly there, he spent the next two years in Tonkin, French Indochina.
13.
On 26 April 1836, Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Korea and Titular Bishop of Capsa.
14.
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert then crossed secretly from Manchuria to Korea that same year.
15.
On 10 August 1839, Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert, who was secretly going about his missionary work, was betrayed.
16.
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert was taken to Seoul, where he was tortured to reveal the whereabouts of foreign missionaries.
17.
Accordingly, a religious statue of Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert Bum is enshrined at a side chapel of the Myeongdong Cathedral, where pious women have vested the image in the traditional Hanbok costume of South Korea.