Asian Pacific Ministry at 1201 E. Highland Ave, San Bernardino, CA 92404 US - The Unique History of the Catholic Church in Korea and Her Martyrs

Unlike the history of other nations, the Christian faith was introduced into Korea through a group of lay persons. The laity not only kept the faith alive but also shared it with others without a single clergy.

Evangelization was practically impossible because Korea refused all contact with the outside world except for an annual journey of emissaries to Peking. On one of these occasions, around 1777, Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led a group of Korean scholars to study as they formed a quasi-monastic lifestyle in a Buddhist temple. One of them was baptized in China in 1784 and came home to baptize his colleagues. This first Christian community was the beginning of the Catholic Church in Korea. When a Chinese priest managed to enter secretly a dozen years later, he found 4,000 Catholics, none of whom had ever seen a priest. Seven years later there were 10,000 Catholics. Almost from the beginning, Christians were persecuted, which lasted over 100 years with the major ones of 1839, 1846, 1866 and 1867, and resulted in more than 10,000 martyrdoms. When Pope John Paul II visited Korea in 1984 he canonized 103 including three French missionaries.

In the unique history of the Church in Korea, and there were courageous heroes such as Saints Andrew Daegun Kim, Paul Hasang Chung, and Columba Hyoim Kim. Pope John Paul II stated at the canonization of the 103 saints in Seoul in 1984: "The Korean Church is unique because it was founded entirely by lay people. 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 boast of 10,000 martyrs. The death of these martyrs became the leaven of the Church and led to today's splendid flowering of the Church in Korea. Even today their undying spirit sustains the Christians in the Church of silence in the north of this tragically divided land."

The first native Korean priest was Andrew Daegun Kim. In 1836 he was sent to the seminary in Macao, China traveling 1,300 miles. After his ordination in 1845 he managed to return to Korea through Manchuria. As he was secretly traveling around the country to minister to the underground Catholics, he was detected. Father Kim was arrested, tortured and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul in 1846 barely one year after his ordination. His self-giving pastoral care as well as his outstanding knowledge and intelligence has inspired so many. His heroic example has prompted an astonishing number of priestly vocations in Korea.

Paul Hasang Chung was an outstanding lay leader of the fledgling Christian community. Through his work, "The Letter to the Prime Minister" is an eloquent articulation of the faith, the first of its kind in the Korean church history. Years later when Pope Gregory XVI saw this book, he was amazed at its veracity and persuasiveness. He is a marvelous inspiration to the active and dynamic laity of the Catholic Church in Korea.

Among the martyrs in 1839 was Columba Kim, an unmarried woman of 26. She was put in prison, pierced with hot tools and seared with burning coals. She and her sister Agnes were beheaded.

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