This article is from page 8 of the 2014-08-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
LISCANNOR man, Thomas Cusack, could move one step closer to becoming a Saint this week as Pope Francis is expected to mention the martyred Clare priest when he undertakes the first visit of any siting Pope to South Korea in more than 25 years.
Last September the Korean Church applied to the Holy See to begin the process which could one day lead to the Columban priest being beatified.
If successful, Fr Cusack ([ictured right), would become only Ireland’s fourth saint of the past thousand years; joining Cellach of Armagh, Saint Oliver Plunkett and Charles of Mount Argus.
Fr Cusack was killed by communist forced in Korean in 1950 and the Korean Church are seeking his beatification as a martyr.
The Liscannor man’s 15 years in Korean were marked by intense bravery and hardship.
He refused to flee the county during the Japanese invasion in World War II and as a result spend a number of years in a brutal prisoner of war camp.
He again refused to leave the country when the Korean War erupted and was captured in 1950 but a communist troops as the retreated north of the border following a battle on July 24, 1950.
Fr Cusack, along with a number of other Catholic priests were martyred in “the massacre at Taejon Prison” with took place on September 24, 1950.
To mark the 80th anniversary of the arrival of the Columban in Korea in 1933 – the Korean Church has put forward a number of priests martyred during the Korean War for sainthood.
As part of the anniversary Korean Church leaders are set to lobby the Pope during his visit this week for the cause of Fr Cusack and seven other Columban priests who lost their lives at Taejon Prison.
“One of the gratifying things is that this process has been initiated by the two dioceses in which the seven men worked,” said Fr Donal O’Keeffe, Regional Director of the Columbans in Korea.
Father Cusack was born in Ballycotton in Liscannor on October 23, 1910. He was educated in Ballycotton National School before going on to attend St Mary’s College in Galway.
He entered the Columbans in 1928 and was ordained in 1934. The following year he was sent to Korea and at the time of his death he was serving in Columban mission in Mokpo.
At presents Ireland boasts a total of 166 saints. The vast majority of these saints were lived during the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries which Ireland was known as the Island of Saints and Scholars.