Korean Martyrs

Korean Martyrs
Korean Martyrs
Martyrs
Born	Various
Died	1839, 1846, 1866
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism
Beatified	1925, 1968
Canonized	May 6, 1984, Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea by Pope John Paul II
Feast	September 20

A religious martyr is a person who is killed as a result of maintaining and practicing religious faith. In the early years of the Christian faith in Korea, several thousand Christians, most of them Roman Catholics, were martyred. The Catholic faith came to Korea at the beginning of the 17th century, during the Joseon period, a time when outside influence of any kind was not welcomed in Korea. Catholicism was seen as a threat to the state ideology of Confucianism, and many Catholic monks, priests and lay members were executed, producing as many as 8,000 or more martyrs.

The Early Christian Church in Korea

Laurent Marie Joseph Imbert, 1st Bishop of Korea

The Roman Catholic church began to develop in Korea at the beginning of the 17th century, brought by Koreans who had met the faith and been converted in China. They also brought translations of the scriptures from China, and the strong and dynamic Catholic communities were led almost entirely by lay people until the arrival of the first Catholic missionaries from France in 1836. The protestant churches did not start sending missionaries until nearly 50 years later, in 1884.

Catholic Martyrs

The Catholic community suffered major persecutions in the years 1839, 1846 and 1866, producing at least 8,000 known martyrs, killed for following a false religion. Among them were the fervent Korean priest Andrew Kim Taegeon and the Korean lay catechist Paul Chung Hasang. The vast majority of the martyrs were simple lay people, including men and women, married and single, old and young. The members of this group of martyrs have been canonized as saints, with feast day September 20. Currently, Korea has the 4th largest number of saints in the Catholic world.

Protestant Martyrs

Robert Jermain Thomas (1839-1866), a Welshman, is the first Protestant missionary on record to have visited Korea, arriving in 1865, to distribute Chinese Bibles, about 20 years before the first organized Protestant evangelists began work in Korea. He returned to Korea again in 1866, on the General Sherman officially as an interpreter, continuing to also distribute Bibles. He was executed along with the rest of the ships crew when the ship sailed too close to Pyungyang and was attached by Korean forces. Thus, he became the first Protestant Korea martyr in Korea.

Many other Protestant missionaries and laymen were killed during the Japanese occupation. Many of the political activists killed during the March 1 Movement in 1919 were Christians. They are better described as political martyrs than religious martyrs, because they were killed as a direct result of their participation in political activism. From that time on, the Japanese occupation government was increasingly suspicious that any Christian might have political motives, and many Christians were imprisoned, tortured and killed.

North Korean Martyrs

At the end of the Korea war, there were an estimated 300,000 Catholics in North Korea, including a number of Benedictine monks. Today, according to Pyungyang, the number of Catholics in North Korea is less than 5,000. At the end of the war, some fled to the South. Others were killed, or gave up their faith. It is impossible to know how many became martyrs.

36 members of the Benedictine order associated with Tokwon Abbey in North Korea have been confirmed as killed by the Stalinist regime between 1949 and 1952, when they refused to abandon their faith. The 36 have been recommended for sainthood, and the Order of St. Benedict Waegwan Abbey in South Korea is working to move the process of their beatification and canonization forward.

Legacy

Although the history of Catholicism in Korea is relatively short, as a result of the brutal persecutions of the church by the Joseon court, the number of martyrs is quite high, and Korea is the country has the 4th largest number of Catholic saints. Pope John Paul II broke with tradition and held a canonization ceremony in Seoul, bestowing sainthood on 103 of the Korean Martyrs.

The courage and sacrifice of the Korean Catholic Church is well known outside Korea, and there are more than a dozen Catholic Churches in North America bearing the name Church of the Korean Martyrs.

Message from Korea's first native Priest

Saint Andrew Kim

From the last letter of Andrew Kim Taegeon to his parish as he awaited martyrdom with a group of twenty persons:

My dear brothers and sisters, know this: Our Lord Jesus Christ upon descending into the world took innumerable pains upon and constituted the holy Church through his own passion and increases it through the passion of its faithful....

Now, however, some fifty or sixty years since holy Church entered into our Korea, the faithful suffer persecutions again. Even today persecution rages, so that many of our friends of the same faith, among whom am I myself, have been thrown into prison. just as you also remain in the midst of persecution. Since we have formed one body, how can we not be saddened in our innermost hearts? How can we not experience the pain of separation in our human faculties?

However, as Scripture says, God cares for the least hair of our heads, and indeed he cares with his omniscience; therefore, how can persecution be considered as anything other than the command of God, or his prize, or precisely his punishment?...

We are twenty here, and thanks be to God all are still well. If anyone is killed, I beg you not to forget his family. I have many more things to say, but how can I express them with pen and paper? I make an end to this letter. Since we are now close to the struggle, I pray you to walk in faith, so that when you have finally entered into Heaven, we may greet one another. I leave you my kiss of love.

Korean Saints

Names of some of the martyrs killed in the persecutions in 1791, 1801, 1827, 1839, 1846, and 1866, 103 of whom were later canonized to sainthood May 6, 1984 by Pope John Paul II. In a break with tradition, the ceremony did not take place in Rome, but in Seoul.

1. Martyrs from the Shinyu Persecution (1801)
   • Zhou (Chu) Munmo, Chinese, Korea's only priest at the time
   • Yi Kyongdo Charles
   • Yi Sooni Lutgardis
   • Chung Yakjong, father of Paul Chung Hasang
2. Ulhae Persecution (1815)
3. Chonghae Persecution (1827)
4. Martyrs from the Gihye Persection (1839)
   • Chung Hasang Paul, (1795-1839), who worked tirelessly as a lay leader to helped establish the early Korean Catholic Church, traveling back and forth to China many times to rebuild the church after the Shinyu persection, and finally gaining official recognition for the Korean Church from Rome on Sept. 9, 1831. He studied for the priesthood under Bishop Imbert, but was killed before becoming a priest.
   • Yu Cecilia, mother of Paul Chung Hasang, died in prison in 1839
   • Chung Junghye, younger sister of Paul Chung Hasang.
   • Nine faithful hung on crosses and then beheaded May 24, 1839:
   1. Kim Obi Magdalene (1774-1839.
   2. Kim Agi Agatha (1787-1839). Baptized in prison 1839.
   3. Han Agi Barbara (1792-1839).
   4. Nam Myonghyeok Damian, a leader of the Catholic Church beginning from the 1820's
   5. Kwon Tugin Peter
   6. Pak Agi Anna
   7. Yi Hwanghon Augustine
   8. Park Huisun Lucy
   9. Yi Agatha, sister of Yi Hoyong Peter
   • Martyred September 21-22, 1839
   1. Yu Chingil Augustine (1791-1839), one of just a few government officials in the Catholic Church, father of Yu Taecheol Peter, baptized in 1824 in China, executed September 22, 1839.
   2. Yu Taecheol Peter, a thirteen-year old boy, youngest of the 103 Korean Martyr Saints.
   3. Ignatius Kim Jejun, father of Andrew Kim Taegon, executed September 22, 1839
   4. Bishop Laurent-Marie-Joseph Imbert, the first bishop assigned to Korea, arriving in 1837
   5. Father Philibert Maubant, French Catholic Priest
   6. Father James Honore' Chastan, French Catholic Priest
   • Among 8 Catholics beheaded on July 20th, 1839, the first group to be martyred after Cho Pyongku issued a decree that the Church be completely eliminated.
   1. Kim Songim Martha (1787-1839)
   2. Yi Magdalena
   3. Ye Theresa
   4. Kim Lucy
   5. Won Kwi-im Maria, beaten badly and tortured
   6. Kim, Rosa
   • Kim Barbara (1805-1839) died of disease while in prison.
5. Killed in the Byeongoh Persecution (1846)
   • Andrew Kim Taegon, son of Ignatius, also a martyr, Korea's first native priest
6. Great Persecution (1866-1871)
   • Bishop Anthony Daveluy
   • Beheaded March 7, 1866
   1. Bishop Siméon François Berneux (1814-1866), French Catholic Bishop, appointed 4th Bishop of Korea in 1854
   2. Father Peter Henricus Dorie, French Catholic Priest
   3. Father Ludovicus Beaulieu, French Catholic Priest
   4. Father Justin de Bretenières, French Catholic Priest

See also

• Andrew Kim Taegon
• Laurent-Marie-Joseph Imbert
• Christianity in Korea

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Attwater, Donald, and Catherine Rachel John. 1995. The Penguin dictionary of saints. London: Penguin. ISBN 9780140513127
• Kim, Chang-seok Thaddeus, and Choong-woo Andreas Lee. 1986. Holy places of the Korean martyrs. Seoul: Lay Apostolate Council of Korea. OCLC: 50093397
• MacMahon, Hugh. 1995. The Korean martyr saints: founders of a church. Seoul: St. Hwang Sŏk Tu Luke Pub. House. ISBN 9788985996020

External links

• APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO KOREA: MASS FOR THE CANONIZATION OF KOREAN MARTYRS. Retrieved July 29, 2007.
• Catholic Culture: Stories of the Korean Martyrs. Retrieved July 29, 2007.
• Catholic Online: Martyrs of Korea. Retrieved July 29, 2007.

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