Wiley Forsythe

Life

Forsythe was born on December 25, 1873, in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. He studied at Princeton University from 1890 to 1894 and graduated from medical school in Louisville in 1898. He then served as an army surgeon in Cuba during the Spanish–American War.

In 1904 he came to Korea as a medical missionary of the Southern Presbyterian Church and began his work in Jeonju. In 1905, after going to a village to treat a man who had been injured by robbers, he was attacked by assailants while spending the night in the man's house. His injuries were severe: one ear was cut off and his skull was fractured. After returning to the United States for treatment, he came back to Korea in 1907 and worked at the Jeonju mission station; from 1909 he served at the Mokpo station, where he combined medical work with evangelism. He later contracted sprue, a tropical intestinal disease that prevents the proper absorption of nutrients, and as his health declined, he gave up mission work and returned to the United States. The Southern Presbyterian roll of missionaries lists his period of service in Korea as 1904–1912. After his return he endured a long illness and died at his home in Louisville in 1918.

Ministry and Achievements

• Medical ministry in Jeonju: Immediately upon arriving in Korea in 1904, he took charge of medical care at the Jeonju hospital (now Jeonju Jesus Hospital) while its founder, Mattie Ingold, was away. He traveled throughout the Jeonju area treating patients and also ran an orphanage.
• The robbery and forgiveness: According to accounts, when it became known that he had forgiven the robbers who attacked him, some members of the Jeonju yangban (aristocratic) class, who had been largely unreceptive to the gospel, began attending church. When he was transferred to Mokpo, more than 1,000 residents of Jeonju reportedly submitted a petition asking that he be sent back to Jeonju.
• Bringing a leprosy patient to Gwangju: In April 1909, he received a telegram reporting that his fellow missionary Clement Owen was critically ill with acute pneumonia in Gwangju, and he set out from Mokpo for Gwangju. Traveling on a pony, he came upon a woman with leprosy lying collapsed by the road. He placed her on his pony and walked into Gwangju leading it by the reins. Owen had already died by the time Forsythe arrived.

Influence on the Korean Church

This incident led to the formation of a settlement for people with Hansen's disease in Bongseon-ri, across from the Gwangju Jejungwon (today Gwangju Christian Hospital). In April 1911, with support from a leprosy mission organization based in Edinburgh, Scotland, a clinic (later the Gwangju Leprosy Hospital) was established and admitted nineteen patients. This hospital was founded by Robert Wilson, director of the Gwangju Jejungwon, and is understood to have later developed into the Aeyangwon in Yeosu.

Choi Heung-jong, who had gone out to meet Forsythe in Gwangju, was profoundly struck when he saw Forsythe lift the patient down from the pony in his arms. Choi went on to devote the rest of his life to the relief of people with Hansen's disease, and in 1912 he became the first elder of Gwangju Bukmunan Church (today Gwangju First Church). In this way Forsythe is regarded as having provided the impetus for a ministry to people with Hansen's disease led by Korean believers themselves. Today Jeonju Jesus Hospital commemorates him by, among other things, publishing a comic-book biography of him and displaying paintings of him in the hospital.

Assessment

In the churches and medical community of the Honam region, Forsythe is remembered as a missionary who embodied love for one's enemies and care for the weak. His service in Korea lasted just over eight years, and during that time his work was frequently interrupted by injury and illness. Accordingly, many observers hold that his influence was carried forward less through his own work than through the ministries of Choi Heung-jong and his fellow missionaries. Details of the 1909 episode vary among sources. Accounts differ on how far from Gwangju he encountered the patient, whether she was a girl or an adult woman, and whether he took off his coat to clothe her, so these accounts should be read with caution.