Today the Church honors the Martyrs of Korea, especially Kim Tae-gon, Chong Ha-sang, Yun Ji-chung, and Companions.
Orate pro nobis.
The Martyrs of Korea are a diverse group of martyrs and saints beginning in 1791, with the first known Korean Christian martyr Yun Ji-chung.
The evangelization of Korea began during the early 1600s, when Christian literature was introduced by Korean Confucian scholars who visited China and brought back Western books translated into Chinese. The Catholic ideas espoused in them were debated by court scholars and were denounced as contrary to the traditions of Korea as early as 1724. In 1777, further Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led other Korean scholars to study the faith, and some became Christians. At this point some Koreans started to be converted to Christianity. As word of Jesus spread, ordinary people flocked to the new religion. The new believers called themselves Chonju Kyo Udul, literally "Friends of the Teaching of God of Heaven". The term "friends" was the only term in the Confucian understanding of relationships which implied equality. Around 1789, a Chinese priest managed to secretly enter the country, where he found 4,000 Christians, none of whom had ever seen a priest. The Christian communities were led almost entirely by educated laypeople from the aristocracy, as they were the only ones who could read the books that were written in Hanja.
It was only in 1784 that the first known Korean was baptized after traveling to China to seek out Jesuit missionaries. This same community sent a delegation on foot to Beijing, 750 miles away, to ask the city's bishop for their own bishops and priests. Eventually, two Chinese priests were sent, but their ministry was short-lived. It was these lay Christians who brought the Gospel to Korea and formed Catholic communities even without priests.
During the Joseon Dynasty, Christianity was suppressed and many Christians were persecuted and executed in waves of persecution and martyrdom, in 1791, 1801, 1827, 1839, 1846, and 1866. Yun Ji-chung is recognized as Korea’s first martyr. Korean leaders saw Christianity as a disruptive force that undermined their rigidly hierarchical society and the Confucian ideals of the political system. Some Christians openly renounced ancestor worship, a scandal in Korean society. The Christian priority on God was perceived to be treason to the king, especially under the ruling Joseon dynasty. Some Korean Christians also turned to foreign powers to establish trade links and encourage religious freedom, actions that the Korean government found suspicious. Christians had to practise their faith covertly. Chong Ha-sang, Yu Chin-gil, and Cho Shin-chol had made several secret visits to Beijing in order to find ways of introducing missionaries into Korea. In 1836, Korea saw its first consecrated missionaries (members of the Paris Foreign Missions Society) arrive, who were surprised to find out that the people there were already practicing Korean Christians.
Since the Sinhae persecution of 1791-1801, there had been no priest to care for the Christian community. Serious dangers awaited the missionaries who dared to enter Korea. The bishops and priests who confronted this danger, as well as the laypeople who aided and sheltered them, were in constant threat of losing their lives. Saint Laurent-Marie-Joseph Imbert, M.E.P. Bishop Laurent Imbert and ten other French missionaries were the first Paris Foreign Missions Society priests to enter Korea. During the daytime, they stayed in hiding, but at night they traveled about on foot attending to the spiritual needs of the faithful and administering the sacraments.
Fr. Kim (21 August 1821 – 16 September 1846) was born into an aristocratic Korean family that eventually included three generations of Catholic martyrs. Kim’s great-grandfather died for his Catholic faith in 1814. After being baptized at age 15, Kim studied at a seminary in the Portuguese colony of Macau. He also spent time in study at Lolomboy, Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines, where today he is also venerated. He was ordained a priest in Shanghai after nine years (1844) by the French bishop Jean Joseph Jean-Baptiste Ferréol. While Kim attended seminary in China, his father was martyred for the faith in 1839. Kim was ordained in Shanghai in 1845 and returned to Korea to catechize Christians in secret. He was arrested 13 months later, tortured, and beheaded. Kim Taegon was the first Korean-born Catholic priest and is the patron saint of Korean clergy.
Paul Chong Hasang was a layman who helped unite Christians under persecution and encouraged them to be strong in the Faith. His appeals to Pope Gregory X directly led the pope to recognize Korea’s Catholic community and to send more priests. Chong died by martyrdom in 1839 after penning a letter in prison defending the Catholic faith to the Korean government.
Another martyr, 17-year-old Agatha Yi, and her brother were falsely told that their parents had denied the faith. She responded: “Whether my parents betrayed or not is their affair. As for us, we cannot betray the Lord of heaven whom we have always served.” Her words were reported widely and inspired six other adult Christians to report themselves to the magistrate. Yi, her parents, and these six are among those canonized.
Fr. Kim, Chong Ha-sang, Yun Ji-chung, and Agatha Yi are numbered amongst the estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Korean Christians who were executed during this time. The vast majority of the martyrs were laypeople. Among the other martyrs were a few bishops and priests, some of the first French missionaries to Korea, and many more to be recognized, and many forgotten by history, but for the most part it was lay people, men and women, married and unmarried, children, young people, and the elderly. All suffered greatly for the Faith and consecrated the rich beginnings of the Church of Korea with their blood as martyrs.
Pope Saint John Paul II, during his trip to Korea, canonized 103 martyrs on May 6, 1984, and inserted their feast into the Calendar of the Universal Church. When he canonized the Korean martyrs in his 1984 visit to South Korea, he noted their great diversity, saying,
“From the 13-year-old Peter Yu to the 72-year-old Mark Chong, men and women, clergy and laity, rich and poor, ordinary people and nobles, many of them descendants of earlier unsung martyrs — they all gladly died for the sake of Christ.”
Pope Francis beatified another 124 martyrs during his August 2014 visit to South Korea. These included Paul Yun Ji-chung, Korea’s first martyr. The cause for the beatification of another 213 martyrs is under way.
Almighty God, who gave to your servants Kim Tae-gon, Chong Ha-sang, Yun Ji-chung, and Companions boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
