South Korea posthumously awards honorary citizenship to Fr PJ McGlinchey

Jun 8, 2018

South Korea on Tuesday posthumously awarded honorary citizenship to the late Columban missionary, Fr Patrick James McGlinchey, who dedicated 64 years to missionary work in the country.

Fr McGlinchey died of heart disease in Korea in April, two months before his 90th birthday.

Korean Justice Minister Park Sang-ki presented the certificate to his nephew, Raymond McGlinchey, during a ceremony at the justice ministry.

Fr McGlinchey came to South Korea aged 26 in 1954, when the country was torn by the Korean War. He settled in the southern island of Jeju and engaged in missionary work and agricultural rehabilitation.

He trained residents with modern farming methods and founded St Isidore Farm in 1961, which is now one of the largest hog farms in Asia. The farm earned him the nickname of “a boar father with blue eyes.”

Profits from the farm were used to set up medical facilities.

“I express my deepest gratitude for late Fr McGlinchey for his noble humanism and the sacrifice he had made for this country over the last 64 years,” Minister Park said.

Courtesy: [email protected] / http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news

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