Church in Seoul

It's free and easy for us in Seoul in the morning of 4 May 2023. We decided to explore area around our hotel in Myeongdong before going to the restaurant which serves the Royal Meal. Along the way, we saw this huge Cathedral of French gothic design. We soon discovered from the signboard that this is the Cathedral Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception or the Myeongdong Cathedral in short.

Before visiting Korea, our perception of South Korean Christians are predominantly Protestants mainly because of the well-publicized mega Church of David Yonggi Cho, the Yoido Full Gospel Church established in 1958. This Church has a membership of 480,000 members.

A search in the internet indicates that South Korea has a sizable Christians. Out of the country population of 52 million, 28% are Christians out of which 16.5% are Protestants and 11.3% are the Catholics. Pope Francis also chose South Korea to be the first nation among the Asian nations for his official visit on 14 August 2014.

The spread of Catholicism in Korea began in the late 18th century. This came about because of exposure of some educated Koreans to Catholicism through western books with Chinese translation.

In early 19th century, early Korean Christians faced persecution soon after Simeon-Francois Berneux, a French Catholic priest was arrested and expelled from the country. The Joseon government then issued orders banning Catholicism and many adherents were subjected to torture and even execution. Despite this, the Catholic community grew. In the process, many Korean Catholics died as martyrs for their faith during that period. The 2019 Korean TV drama series "Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung" was set in that era (Read here). Many of scenes in this historical drama were filmed in Changdeokgung Palace and the Secret Garden where we visited on 5 May 2023 (Read here).

The Myeongdong Cathedral is the first Catholic Church built in the midst of persecution under the Joseon government.

In the Church compound, we saw the statute of Andrew Kim Daegeon (21.8.1921-16.9.1846). He is the first Korean-born priest who was martyred. A year after he was ordained at the age of 24 as a priest in 1845, he was beheaded a year later in 1946. He was canonized as a saint during the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1984.