Persecution of Catholics in Joseon

Background

In the late eighteenth century, Catholicism became known to some scholars of the Southerner (Namin) faction through books of Western Learning (Seohak) that had reached Korea by way of China, and a community of believers took shape as a result. The Joseon court regarded Catholicism as a heterodox teaching (sahak) that undermined the Confucian order. In 1791, Yun Ji-chung and Gwon Sang-yeon of Jinsan in Jeolla Province, following the Bishop of Beijing's prohibition of ancestral rites, ceased performing the rites and burned their ancestral tablets. The two men were beheaded in Jeonju for this act, an event known as the Sinhae Persecution. The incident hardened the perception that Catholicism taught people to forsake their parents and their king. In 1795, the Eulmyo Persecution broke out after a failed attempt to arrest the Chinese priest Zhou Wenmo.

Course of the Persecutions

The Catholic Church commonly refers to the following four events as the "Four Great Persecutions."

• Sinyu Persecution (1801): After King Jeongjo died and the young King Sunjo ascended the throne, Queen Dowager Jeongsun, who governed as regent on the young king's behalf, ordered a strict prohibition of Catholicism. Father Zhou Wenmo, Jeong Yak-jong, and others were executed at this time. The persecution is also regarded as having served a political purpose: the Byeokpa faction of the Noron, which had taken power, sought to eliminate the Southerners who had led reforms under Jeongjo.
• Gihae Persecution (1839): This persecution lasted from March to October 1839, during the reign of King Heonjong. For some thirty years after the Sinyu Persecution, the Church had been sustained by laypeople alone, without clergy; Bishop Laurent Imbert and Fathers Pierre Maubant and Jacques Chastan, who had since entered Joseon, were executed at this time. Leading believers such as Jeong Ha-sang, Yu Jin-gil, and Jo Sin-cheol were also executed. Jeong Ha-sang left behind the Sangjaesangseo (Letter to the Prime Minister), a defense of Catholicism. The court promulgated the Cheoksa Yuneum, a royal edict calling for the rejection of the heterodox religion.
• Byeong-o Persecution (1846): Father Andrew Kim Dae-geon, the first Korean Catholic priest, was arrested on Sunwi Island in Hwanghae Province while surveying sea routes by which missionaries could enter the country. He was executed at Saenamteo in Seoul; in all, nine people, including Father Kim, were martyred in this persecution.
• Byeongin Persecution (1866–1871): This persecution took place while the Heungseon Daewongun held power. It was triggered when Nam Jong-sam, Hong Bong-ju, and others proposed allying with France to check Russia's southward advance. Nine French missionaries, including Bishop Siméon-François Berneux, were executed at places such as Saenamteo in Seoul and Galmaemot in Boryeong, Chungcheong Province. When Father Félix-Clair Ridel, who had escaped from Joseon to evade the persecution, requested help, a French fleet was dispatched; this became the French Campaign against Korea (Byeongin Yangyo). The persecution continued in four waves until 1871.

Results and Impact

The victims of the Byeongin Persecution are estimated at 8,000 to 10,000, most of whose names have not survived. The Podocheong Deungnok, the records of the police bureau, indicate that of the 2,116 believers arrested during the Byeongin Persecution, 1,549 were martyred. As the persecutions recurred, the Church lost its clergy and leaders and endured a long period of stagnation. Even so, believers sustained their community and left records of martyrdom such as the Gihae Ilgi (Gihae Diary).

The Catholic Church later formally honored the martyrs. The martyrs of the Gihae and Byeong-o persecutions were beatified in Rome in 1925. On May 6, 1984, Pope John Paul II canonized 103 martyrs at Yeouido in Seoul. On August 16, 2014, Pope Francis beatified Yun Ji-chung, Gwon Sang-yeon, and others at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul.

Assessment

The Catholic Church honors these persecutions as a history of martyrdom in which believers kept the faith. Historians note that the religious suppression was intertwined with factional strife and with wariness toward Western powers. Some analyses also hold that the Gihae Persecution was less political in character than the Sinyu Persecution. Protestant missions in Korea began in earnest in the 1880s, and Protestants likewise treat these persecutions as an earlier chapter in the history of Christianity's reception in Korea.