History of the Catholic Church in Korea

Background

In eighteenth-century Joseon, the first people to show interest in Western Learning (Seohak, the Western scholarship and Catholic books that reached Korea by way of China) were mainly young scholars of the Namin (Southerners) faction who had been excluded from government office. In 1779 these scholars are said to have held a study gathering (ganghakhoe) at Cheonjinam Hermitage in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, and elsewhere, where they studied Western Learning texts together. Opinions differ as to whether this gathering should be regarded as the beginning of a community of faith or merely as a scholarly meeting.

Development

Founding and the Early Community (1784–1790s)

• 1784: Yi Byeok urged Yi Seung-hun, who traveled to Beijing in late 1783 with the winter solstice embassy (dongjisa, a mission sent annually to the Qing court), to receive baptism there. Yi Seung-hun was baptized by Father de Grammont at the North Church (Beitang) in Beijing and received the baptismal name Peter. He returned with catechisms and religious articles and baptized Yi Byeok and others at Yi Byeok's house near Supyo Bridge in Seoul. The Church regards this year as the founding year of the Korean Catholic Church.
• 1785: Believers were discovered gathering at the house of the interpreter Kim Beom-u in Myeongnyebang (present-day Myeong-dong). This is known as the Myeongnyebang Incident.
• 1786–1787: Without priests, the believers operated a so-called pseudo-clergy system (gaseongjik, in which persons who had not been formally ordained took on clerical roles), with laypeople celebrating Mass and the sacraments among themselves. In 1787 they even chose Kwon Il-sin as bishop. Soon, however, questions arose as to whether this practice conformed to canon law.
• 1791 and 1795: The Sinhae Persecution and the Eulmyo Persecution followed in succession, and in their course Yi Seung-hun lost his official post and was sent into exile. In the 1790s the Chinese priest Zhou Wenmo entered Joseon and carried out his ministry; the royal court attempted to arrest him in 1795.

The Sinyu Persecution (1801)

In the Sinyu Persecution of 1801 (the first year of King Sunjo's reign), most of the Church's leaders, including Jeong Yak-jong, were arrested, and Yi Seung-hun was beheaded. Father Zhou Wenmo turned himself in and was executed. Hwang Sa-yeong, who was hiding in a cave at Baeron in Jecheon, wrote an account of the course of the persecution and proposals for rebuilding the Church in more than 13,000 characters on a piece of white silk, intending to send it to Bishop Gouveia in Beijing. It was discovered before it could be delivered, however; this document is the Silk Letter of Hwang Sa-yeong.

Establishment of the Apostolic Vicariate of Korea (1831)

After the Sinyu Persecution, the Korean Church went without priests for about thirty years. During this period believers such as Jeong Ha-sang and Yu Jin-gil sent letters to the Holy See asking for priests. On September 9, 1831, Pope Gregory XVI separated Korea from the Diocese of Beijing and established it as the Apostolic Vicariate of Korea. An apostolic vicariate is a mission territory that the Holy See governs directly by sending a bishop as vicar apostolic before a regular diocese is established. The pope appointed Bishop Bruguière, who had been serving in the Apostolic Vicariate of Siam (present-day Thailand), as the first vicar apostolic, and the Paris Foreign Missions Society subsequently took charge of the mission to Korea. Bishop Bruguière died in 1835 at Majiazi, near the border, before he could enter Korea. His successor, Bishop Imbert, entered Korea in December 1837.

The Byeongin Persecution (1866)

Persecution recurred thereafter. The Byeongin Persecution, which began in 1866, intensified in the wake of the French campaign against Korea (Byeongin Yangyo), an armed clash with France that same year. The regime of the Heungseon Daewongun branded believers as people who had invited foreign enemies and executed a great many of them.

Outcomes and Influence

Even amid persecution, the faith spread to Gyeonggi, the Naepo region of Chungcheong, Jeonju, and elsewhere. The tradition of honoring the martyrs became an important part of Korean Catholic identity, and places associated with the persecutions, such as Baeron, are preserved as shrines. The Archdiocese of Seoul regards itself as the successor of the Apostolic Vicariate of Korea. In 1931, on the centenary of the vicariate's establishment, Bishop Bruguière's remains were transferred to the clergy cemetery in Yongsan, Seoul. Bishop Bruguière and Hwang Sa-yeong are called "Servants of God," a Catholic title for persons whose causes for beatification (the official declaration of a person as Blessed) have been opened. The year 2024 marked the 240th anniversary of the Church's founding.

Assessment

• The Church emphasizes as a distinctive feature of the Korean Catholic Church that Koreans themselves sought baptism and founded a community before any missionaries arrived. It also takes Yi Seung-hun's baptism in 1784, rather than the 1779 study gathering, as the Church's origin.
• Yi Seung-hun apostatized (renounced the faith) on several occasions. Nevertheless, he is regarded, together with Yi Byeok and Kwon Il-sin, as one of the figures who led the founding of the early Church.
• Immediately after its discovery, the Silk Letter of Hwang Sa-yeong was suspected by some of being a fabrication by opponents of Catholicism. It was, however, shown to have been written by Hwang Sa-yeong himself, and it serves as a key source for the study of early Church history.