Seoul Archdiocese Remembers 19th-Century Martyrs 100 Years After Beatification

The Archdiocese of Seoul in South Korea offered a Holy Mass in honor of the 79 Korean martyrs who were beatified one hundred years ago.

More than a thousand people attended the Mass on July 5 at the Seosomun Shrine History Museum in Seoul—the site where 41 of the martyrs died and a place considered “the greatest site of martyrdom in the Korean Church.”

In his homily, Seoul Archbishop Peter Soon-taick Chung urged the faithful to emulate the martyrs’ steadfast loyalty to their Catholic faith.

“Their endurance deepened their faith, which ultimately bore fruit as true hope that overcame even death,” he said.

The 79 Korean martyrs were killed during the Gihae and Byeong-o persecutions of 1839 and 1846. They were beatified by Pope Pius XI on July 5, 1925.

Another group of 24 martyrs was later beatified in 1968 by Pope John Paul II, who canonized both groups—totaling 103 martyrs—during his visit to Korea in 1984. Among them was Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, the first Korean Catholic priest.

During the Mass, the Archdiocese of Seoul’s Martyrs Elevation Committee unveiled a new report containing updated data on the Gihae and Byeong-o persecutions.

“This is the first time that historical facts from official records—interrogations, reports, and directives from institutions like the Royal Secretariat and the State Council—have been carefully extracted, translated, and compiled, rather than relying solely on testimonies,” said Archbishop Chung.

“Even though these were records written by the persecutors, the courageous faith and deep conscience of the martyrs stand out all the more clearly within them,” he noted.

The report has also been translated into Korean to make it more accessible to local Church communities.

The Korean Church estimates that approximately 16,000 Catholics were killed during the 19th-century persecutions. Religious freedom was not granted in Korea until 1895.

Alongside the report’s release, an exhibition also opened at the Seosomun Shrine, offering a rare glimpse into Korea’s cultural and spiritual heritage from a century ago. The exhibit features around 270 artifacts from various Korean museums and monasteries, as well as loaned items from the Vatican’s Ethnological Museum.

Entitled “Anima Mundi – Souls of the World,” the exhibition will run until September 14.