The Korean Martyrs were the victims of religious persecution against Catholics during the 19th century in Korea. Among them are and officially recognized by the Catholic Church.
Overview
There were 5 main sets of persecutions against Christians in nineteenth-century Korea;
Catholic Persecution of 1801
Catholic Persecution of 1866
Between 8,000–10,000 Korean Christians were killed during this period. In May 1984, 103 Catholics were canonised en masse, including the first Korean Catholic priest, Andrew Kim Taegon, who was executed by sword in 1846.
In 2014, Paul Yun Ji-Chung and 123 companions were declared "Venerable" on 7 February 2014 and on 16 August 2014. They were beatified by Pope Francis during the Asian Youth Day in Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul. They further moved to beatify Catholics who were killed by North Korean communists during the Korean War.
Background At the end of the eighteenth century, Korea was ruled by the Joseon Dynasty. It was a society based on Confucianism and its hierarchical, class relationships. There was a small minority of privileged scholars and nobility while the majority were commoners paying taxes, providing labor, and manning the military, all above a slave class. Catholic Net website
When scholars first introduced Christianity to Korea, 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.
History During the early seventeenth century, Christian literature written in Chinese was imported from China to Korea. The Catholic ideas espoused in them were debated and denounced as heterodoxy as early as 1724.Baker, Don (1999). "Catholicism in a Confucian World." In Culture and the State in Late Choson Korea. Edited by Haboush and Beuchler. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, p. 201. In 1777, Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led educated Korean Christians to study the faith. At this point some Koreans started to be converted to Catholicism.
When a Chinese priest managed to secretly enter the country a dozen years later, he found 4,000 Catholics, none of whom had ever seen a priest. The Catholic 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.
The 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, and another forty years passed before the Paris Foreign Mission Society began its work in Korea with the arrival of Father Maubant in 1836. Paul Chong Hasang, Augustine Yu Chin-gil and Charles Cho Shin-chol had made several visits to Beijing to find ways of introducing missionaries into Korea.
Since the Sinhae persecution of 1791–1801, there had been no priest to care for the Catholic 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.
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. The first Korean Catholic priest, Andrew Kim Taegŏn, who was trained in Macau, succeeded in entering Korea as a missionary. However, thirteen months after his ordination he was put to death by the sword in 1846 at the age of 26. He is now recognised as the patron saint of Korean clergy.
The idea of Catholics gathering in one place with no distinction on the basis of class were perceived to undermine "hierarchical Confucianism", the ideology which held the state together. The new learning was seen to be subversive of the establishment and this gave rise to systematic suppression and persecution. Official documents detail trials and the sentences. There were four major persecutions; the last one was in 1866, at which time there were only 20,000 Catholics in Korea (other Christian denominations did not enter Korea until sometime later). The vast majority of the martyrs were laypeople. Encyclopedia.com website
Recognition More than 10,000 martyrs died in persecutions which extended over more than one hundred years. Of all these martyrs, seventy-nine were beatified in 1925. Twenty-four others were beatified on 6 October 1968.Solenne beatificazione dei martiri della Corea vatican.va, article in Italian They had died in the persecutions of 1839 (Ki-hae persecution), 1846 (Pyong-o persecution) and 1866 (Pyong-in persecution). All together, 103 martyrs were canonized by Pope John Paul II on 6 May 1984. In breaking tradition, the ceremony did not take place in Rome but Seoul. Their feast day is September 20.
Andrew Kim Taegŏn wrote to his parish as he awaited his execution with a group of twenty persons:
In the early 1870s, Father Claude-Charles Dallet compiled a comprehensive history of the Catholic Church in Korea, largely from the manuscripts of martyred Bishop Antoine Daveluy. The Korean Martyrs were known for their staunchness, sincerity, and number of their converts. An English lawyer and sinologist Edward Harper Parker observed that:
Coreans [sic], unlike Chinese and Japanese, make the most staunch and devoted converts… The Annamese [Vietnamese] make better converts than either Chinese or Japanese, whose tricky character, however, they share; but they are gentler and more sympathetic; they do not possess the staunch masculinity of the Coreans.Parker, Edward Harper (1897). "Personal reminiscences touching Christian missionaries in China, Corea, Burma, etc. by a non-Catholic." In The Dublin Review, vol. 120, p. 368.
According to Ernst Oppert, An observation, founded upon many years' experience, may not be out of place here, and that is, that among all Asiatic nationalities there is probably none more inclined to be converted to Christianity than the Corean [sic]… He becomes a Christian from conviction, not from any mercenary motives.Oppert, Ernst (1880). A forbidden land: voyages to the Corea, p. 84.
Bishop and martyr Simeon François Berneux wrote, The Corean [sic] possesses the most perfect dispositions for receiving the faith. Once convinced, he accepts and attaches himself to it, in spite of all sacrifices it may cost him.Pichon, Frédéric (1872). The life of monseigneur Berneux, p. 132.
The priest Francis Goldie stated, Certainly few countries, if any, have to tell of such a painful apostolate, or of one which has had such success. Japan alone in later days can boast a martyrology at all to compare with that of Corea [sic] in the number of the slain, or in the heroism of those who died for Christ.Goldie, Francis (1875). "Chronicles of Catholic missions: IV. The early days of the Corean Church." In The Month and Catholic Review, vol. 5, p. 211.
Individual martyrs
The Christian community first began to take shape when Yi Seung-hun started to study Christian doctrine by himself and was eventually baptized and given the name Peter in 1784. Because of their belief in the Christian God, the first Korean Christians were persecuted repeatedly, rejected by their families, and suffered a loss of their social rank. Despite persecutions, the faith continued to spread.Jean Sangbae Ri. Confucius et Jesus Christ. Paris: Beauchesne. 1979. page 26
The Christian community in Korea was given the assistance of two Chinese priests, but their ministry was short-lived, and another forty years passed before the Paris Foreign Missions Society began its work in Korea with the arrival of Father Mauban in 1836. A delegation was selected and sent to Beijing on foot, 750 miles, to ask the Bishop of Beijing to send them bishops and priests.
The same appeal was made to the Pope in Rome. Serious dangers awaited the missionaries who dared to enter Korea. The bishops and priests who confronted this danger, as well as the lay Christians who aided and sheltered them, were in constant threat of losing their lives.
Until the granting of religious liberty in Korea in 1886, there were many "disciples who shed their blood, in imitation of Christ Our Lord, and who willingly submitted to death, for the salvation of the world" (Lumen Gentium, 42). Among those who died, and were later named as martyrs, were eleven priests and ninety-two lay people who would be canonized as saints.
Bishop Laurent Imbert and ten other French missionaries were the first Paris Foreign Mission Society priests to enter Korea and to embrace a different culture for the love of God. During the daytime, they stayed in hiding, but at night they travelled about on foot attending to the spiritual needs of the faithful and administering the sacraments.
Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and 101 Companions
The first Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon, found a way to make the difficult task of entering Korea as a missionary from Macau. Thirteen months after his ordination he was put to death by the sword when he was 25 years old.
Paul Chong Hasang, Augustine Yu Chin-gil and Charles Cho Shin-chol had made several visits to Beijing to find new ways of introducing missionaries into Korea and a bishop and ten priests from the Paris Foreign Missions Society arrived in the country for the first time since 1801.
Among the martyrs honored were fifteen women, including the two sisters, Agnes Kim Hyo-ju and Columba Kim Hyo-im. These women, in an era when Christian religious life was still unknown in Korea, lived in community and cared for the sick and the poor. John Yi Kwang-hyol died a martyr's death after having lived a life of celibacy in consecrated service to the Church.
Some of the other martyrs who were canonized that day included: Damien Nam Myong-hyok and Maria Yi Yon-hui John Nam Chong-sam, though of high social rank, was a model of justice, chastity and poverty; John Pak Hu-jae who, after he lost his parents in the persecutions, learned to survive by making straw sandals; Peter Kwon Tug-in who devoted himself to meditation; Anna Pak Agi who, although she did not have a deep grasp of Christian doctrine, was wholly devoted to Jesus and Mary; Peter Yu Tae-chol who confessed his faith and died a martyr at the age of 13 years old.유대철 베드로
Paul Yun Jichung and 123 Companions
The 124 martyrs were beatified on August 16, 2014 in Seoul by Pope Francis during his visit to Korea.
Biography of major martyrs: Yun Ji-chung Paul (1759–1791). The first Chosun martyr killed for his Catholic faith, was born in 1759 to a noble family in Jinsan, Jeolla-do. Yun Ji-heon Francis, who was martyred during the Shinyu Persecution of 1801, was his younger brother.
In 1783, Yun passed the first state examination and learned about Catholicism for the first time through his cousin Jung Yak Yong John. After being baptized in 1787, he preached the Catholic doctrine to his mother, younger brother, and cousin Kwon Sang Yeon James. He also kept in touch with Yoo Hang Geom Augustine to keep up mission work.
In 1791, Bishop Gouvea of Beijing ordered a ban on traditional ancestral rites within his diocese. Yun Ji Chung and Kwon Sang Yeon, in accordance with the Church's commands, set their families ancestral tablets on fire. Chung's mother died the following year. She requested to receive a Catholic funeral which her son duly provided for her. These actions angered the royal family.