James Zhou Wenmo

Life

Zhou was born in 1752 in Kunshan County, Suzhou Prefecture, in the Jiangnan region of Qing China (present-day Kunshan, Jiangsu Province). He lost his parents at an early age and was raised by his paternal aunt. He is said to have married but lost his wife early. He later entered the seminary of the Diocese of Beijing and, as one of its first graduates, was ordained to the priesthood.

At that time, Catholic believers in Joseon were sustaining their community of faith without clergy. Yun Yu-il and others traveled back and forth to Beijing to request that a priest be sent, and Bishop Alexandre de Gouvea of Beijing appointed Zhou, whose appearance resembled that of a Korean, as missionary to Joseon. He left Beijing in February 1794 and waited for the Yalu River to freeze. On the night of December 24 of that year (the third day of the twelfth lunar month), disguised as a Korean and guided by Ji Hwang and others, he crossed the border.

In 1795, after an apostate informed the authorities of his presence, he took refuge in the home of a laywoman, Kang Wan-suk. Yun Yu-il and Ji Hwang, who had helped him enter the country, and Choe In-gil, who had sheltered him, were arrested and beaten to death at the Podocheong (police bureau). This episode is known as the Eulmyo Persecution. In 1801, as believers were arrested one after another during the Sinyu Persecution, he fled toward the border but then turned back and surrendered himself to the authorities. On May 31 of that year he was executed at Saenamteo by gunmun hyosu (beheading followed by display of the head at the gate of a military camp). He was 49 years old.

Ministry and Achievements

While staying at Choe In-gil's house in Gye-dong, Seoul, he learned Hangul. At Easter 1795, he and the faithful celebrated the first Mass (the Catholic Eucharistic liturgy) in Joseon. Though living in hiding, he visited believers and administered the sacraments, and, guided by Yu Hang-geom, he traveled as far as the Honam region. Jugyo yoji (Essentials of the Lord's Teaching), a Hangul catechism written by Jeong Yak-jong, circulated among believers with his approval. In the Myeongdohoe, a lay association, Jeong Yak-jong served as the first president, and Kang Wan-suk assisted Zhou as leader of the women members. During the six years of his ministry, the number of Catholics in Joseon reportedly grew to about ten thousand.

Influence on the Korean Church

Before his arrival, the Catholic community in Joseon had operated a so-called pseudo-clergy system, in which laymen assumed clerical functions among themselves. Upon learning that this arrangement violated canon law, they had abandoned it. With Zhou's arrival, Korean believers received the sacraments from a validly ordained priest for the first time. He is also regarded as the first foreign Christian missionary to enter Joseon. Saenamteo, where he was executed, later became the site of the executions of several other priests, including Andrew Kim Dae-geon, and in 1987 a church commemorating the martyrs was built there. A memorial tomb honoring him stands at the Eonong Shrine in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province.

Assessment

The Catholic Church venerates him as a martyr. On August 16, 2014, Pope Francis beatified "Paul Yun Ji-chung and 123 Companion Martyrs," including Zhou, at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul. "Blessed" is a title the Church gives to martyrs or persons of heroic virtue whom it officially recognizes as worthy of public veneration. Of the 124, he is the only priest; all the others were laypeople.

At the same time, the Joseon court of that era banned Catholicism as sahak (邪學, "heterodox teaching"). His entry into the country was therefore an illegal, clandestine entry in violation of the law of the land, and Korea History Net, operated by the National Institute of Korean History, likewise describes it plainly as a clandestine entry. Histories of this period also note that a number of the believers who hid and assisted him lost their lives.