St. Andrew Kim Taegon (1821–1846) was the first Korean-born Catholic priest, martyred at the age of twenty-five, and with the lay apostle St. Paul Chong Hasang and 101 companions he represents the thousands of Korean Catholics who gave their lives for Christ in the persecutions of the nineteenth century. The Church in Korea is unique: it was founded not by missionaries but by Korean lay scholars who discovered the faith through books, and it grew for decades with almost no priests. Pope St. John Paul II canonized the 103 Korean Martyrs in Seoul in 1984. Their feast day is September 20. Below are their story, Scripture and prayers to the Korean Martyrs.
A short prayer to the Korean Martyrs, written for this page:
St. Andrew Kim Taegon, St. Paul Chong Hasang and all the holy martyrs of Korea,
you held on to Christ through prison, torture and death.
Pray for the Church in Korea and for persecuted Christians everywhere, and make my faith as strong as yours. Amen.
A Church founded by lay people
In the late 1700s, Korean scholars studied Christian books brought back from China. In 1784 one of them, Yi Seung-hun, was baptized in Beijing and returned home to baptize others, and a community of believers grew up without any priest. When the first priest, a Chinese missionary, secretly entered Korea in 1795, he found about four thousand Catholics. The Joseon government saw the new faith, which rejected ancestor rites and taught the equality of all people before God, as a threat, and waves of persecution followed in 1801, 1839, 1846 and 1866, in which some ten thousand Catholics died.
St. Andrew Kim Taegon
Andrew Kim Taegon was born in 1821 into a noble Catholic family; his great-grandfather and his father were martyred. At fifteen he was sent with two other young men to study at the seminary in Macau, and in 1845 he was ordained a priest in Shanghai, the first Korean priest. He returned secretly to Korea and ministered for just a year before he was arrested while arranging for missionaries to enter the country. After months in prison, he was beheaded at Saenamteo, by the Han River in Seoul, on September 16, 1846. Before he died he wrote a letter encouraging the Christians of Korea to stay united and faithful.
St. Paul Chong Hasang
Paul Chong Hasang (1795–1839), a layman whose father and brother had been martyred, traveled to Beijing many times on foot, working as a servant in diplomatic missions, to beg the bishop to send priests to Korea, and he wrote to the Pope himself. He prepared to become a priest, but was arrested in the persecution of 1839. He wrote a defense of the Christian religion addressed to the government before he was beheaded on September 22, 1839.
Scripture
St. Paul on the love that no persecution can break (Romans 8:35–39, Douay-Rheims):
Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword?
(As it is written: For thy sake we are put to death all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.)
But in all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us.
For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Canonization
On May 6, 1984, during his visit to Korea for the bicentennial of the Korean Church, Pope John Paul II canonized 103 martyrs in Seoul: 10 French missionaries and 93 Koreans, men and women, old and young. It was the first canonization held outside Rome in centuries. In 2014 Pope Francis beatified 124 more martyrs, Paul Yun Ji-chung and companions, in Seoul.
Prayers
Written for this page.
For Korea
Holy martyrs of Korea, pray for your homeland, for peace and reconciliation between North and South,
and for the Christians of North Korea who still suffer for their faith. Amen.
For lay apostles
St. Paul Chong Hasang, you never stopped working to bring priests and sacraments to your people.
Pray for lay Catholics, that they may take responsibility for the faith and share it with courage. Amen.
Feast day
The memorial of Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon, priest, Paul Chong Hasang and Companions, martyrs, is September 20.
Frequently asked questions
Who was the first Korean priest?
St. Andrew Kim Taegon, ordained in Shanghai in 1845 and martyred in Seoul in 1846.
How many Korean Martyrs are saints?
103, canonized by Pope John Paul II in Seoul on May 6, 1984.
When is the feast of the Korean Martyrs?
September 20.
More saints
- St. Paul Miki and companions
- Vietnamese Martyrs
- St. Charles Lwanga and the Uganda Martyrs
- Patron saint of the Philippines
- Patron saints of countries
- Saint of the day
Texts and sources
- Romans 8:35–39 (Douay-Rheims).