The martyrs of Korea and their children

Unlike every other country in the history of the world, the Catholic Faith came to Korea through the invitation of the laity rather than through missionaries and priests. And many of those brave Korean lay Catholics have given their lives for the sake of their faith.

For those of us with fuzzy memories about Asian history and geography, the Korean peninsula is located between mainland China and the island of Japan. The people of Korea live somewhat separated from their powerful neighbors by seas and mountains.

Before modern times, Buddhism and Confucianism traded places for dominance in Korea for many centuries, generally due to the preferences of the reigning dynasty. But eventually, some Korean scholars began searching for answers that they could not find in those two beliefs. When they discovered some Chinese books about a new religion introduced by Europeans in China, they were intrigued. Then they were certain: this was the truth they had been looking for.

In the year 1784, Yi Seung-hun traveled to China to learn about the Catholic faith. He was baptized by missionaries, took the name of Peter, and returned to Korea. Then he baptized Yi Byeok, who took the baptismal name John Baptist, and Gwon Il-Sin, who took the name Francis Xavier. From these three “Founding Fathers” of the Catholic Church in Korea, faith in Jesus Christ began to spread among all classes of people.

However, as is often the case in a newly evangelized culture, the authorities resisted this new religion with violence. They interpreted the claims of the Catholic faith as an attack on their native beliefs, and they saw Christianity as an aspect of European culture that had to be rejected to protect Korean culture. Many Korean Catholics were imprisoned, brutally tortured, and killed when they refused to renounce their faith in Christ and His Church.

As Pope Saint John Paul II summarized it during a canonization Mass in 1984 to the Catholics of Korea:

This fledgling Church, so young and yet so strong in faith, withstood wave after wave of fierce persecution. Thus, in less than a century, it could already boast of some ten thousand martyrs. The years 1791, 1801, 1827, 1839, 1846 and 1866 are forever signed with the holy blood of your Martyrs and engraved in your hearts.

The first Korean to die a martyr for Christ, Blessed Caius (1571-1624), had died a century earlier because he was living in Japan. But in Korea from the late eighteenth century through the nineteenth century, many Koreans died in their native country due to waves of persecution. Despite so many deaths and the constant danger, many Korean Catholics continued worship God in secret, even when they had virtually no priests and no access to the sacraments or churches in which to worship Him. The names of many of those ten thousand martyrs will never be known.

However, the Church was able to identify 103 men, women, and children who died during the period 1839-1867. These were the martyrs who were beatified by Pope John Paul in 1984 and who are commemorated by the Church each year on September 20.

Among these blesseds, Andrew Kim Tae-gon¹ was the first native Korean to become a priest, and Paul Chong Hasang was a lay catechist who personally wrote to the pope and begged him to send priests to Korea.

Peter Yu Tae-ch’ol was a thirteen-year-old who encouraged other Christians to stay firm in their faith while in prison. He endured 100 lashes with a whip before being executed.

Anne Pak A-gi was a wife and mother. When her family was arrested, her husband and sons apostatized and tried to convince her to do the same. However, she refused, even after being severely beaten. This devout woman, who struggled to memorize Christian prayers and the catechism, knew her faith well enough to tell the guards who tried to break her faith, “Why should I risk my eternal life in order to live here just a few more days?”²

Widows Magdalene Kim Ob-i and Agatha Kim A-gi were tortured and condemned to death because, according to official records, they had committed the treasonous crime of reading Christian books, believing the Catholic heresy, and possessing holy cards.

In 2014, Pope Francis beatified another 124 martyrs. These blesseds, remembered together on May 29, died in the years between 1791 and 1888. One of the martyrs, Paul Yun Ji-Ching, was from a noble family. When he refused to practice the customary funeral rites, which were prohibited by the Catholic bishop as an act of ancestor worship, he ran away to escape arrest. When his uncle was arrested in his place, Paul turned himself in to the authorities. Even under torture, Paul repeated that he would only worship the one true God and would not disobey God’s commandments. He was beheaded in 1791.

Those 227 beatified martyrs include seven French priests who were sent to Korea by the Paris Foreign Mission Society and one Chinese priest. But the remaining martyrs were ordinary Koreans from all walks of life who chose to give up their lives rather than give up their faith in Jesus Christ.

The three famous Founding Fathers who initially opened the way for the faith to enter Korea are included in a group of martyrs that have so far only been declared Servants of God. Those 133 laymen and laywomen died as martyrs from 1785 to 1879.

Two other groups of Korean martyrs, also currently only declared Servants of God, are still waiting in the wings. They include: 1) thirty-eight men and women who were Korean diocesan priests, as well as Benedictine clergy and religious from Germany, Korea, and Slovenia, all of whom died during the Korean War (1949-1952); and 2) eighty-one Korean diocesan priests, along with religious sisters, laymen, and religious priests from Ireland, France, and the US who died from 1901 to 1974. The canonization processes of these two groups are probably at an impasse. After all, both lists include Catholics who died at the hands of North Korea forces, and the North Korea government would probably consider it a political provocation if Catholics killed by communists were declared to be blesseds.

Alone among all these many Korean martyrs is Venerable Servant of God Tommaso Choe Yan-eop (1821-1861). He left Korea when he was only a teenager so that he could be trained in China and ordained a priest. He therefore escaped being arrested during a period of persecution. When he was able to return to his homeland, Tommaso traveled throughout the Korean countryside to provide the sacraments to Catholics, composed hymns in his native language, and translated a prayer book and catechism into Korean. He died of a fever just a few years before a new wave of persecution erupted.

Just as there are Americans alive today who can trace their ancestry back to relatives who traveled on the Mayflower or who fought in the Revolutionary War, so there are Koreans today who can trace their ancestry back to the nineteenth-century Korean martyrs. For example, Servant of God Augustine Chong Yak-jong (1760-1801) was a scholar, a leader in an early Catholic institute in Korea, and a writer of the first guide to the Catholic faith in the Korean language. He was executed at the age of forty-two, but his descendants are alive today in Korea and America.

The Korean martyrs may have given their lives for Christ, but their children, grandchildren, and great-great-great-great-grandchildren are still among us.

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