The early history of the Faith in Korea and the first missionary priest, Zhou Wenmo

In my opinion, the history of the Catholic Church in Korea is an especially fascinating part of Church history. In this article, I write about the history of of Catholicism in Korea, up to and including the death of the first missionary priest to serve among the Koreans, Zhōu Wénmó (Korean: 주문모, Traditional Chinese: 周文謨, Simplified Chinese: 周文谟).

The first Catholics to enter Korea were, ironically, members of the Japanese army who invaded Korea in the Imjin War (1592-1598), including the commander of the 1st army, Konishi Yukinaga. When he was forced to retreat in 1593, Konishi asked for Jesuit priests from Japan. Father Cespedes and Leon were the first priests to enter Korea. They conducted missionary work among the Japanese soldiers, not among the Koreans. Nevertheless, a Japanese soldier baptized 200 dying children during two years. Some Korean prisoners of war taken to Japan accepted the faith, and there are records that for example in 1594, 2000 Korean POWs were baptized. However, there is no proof that they maintained their faith in any organized form once they returned to Korea.

There were some contacts with the faith in the following centuries. Korea had a historical policy of maintaining good relationships with the big neighbor, China. There were Catholic missionaries in China continuously, and some of them resided in Beijing near the quarters of the Korean envoys. The envoys sometimes visited them for knowledge about the West, and they brought back Matteo Ricci’s world map, books about science, astronomy, calendars and also some books related to Catholicism.

When Crown Prince Sohyeon (1612-1645) was staying in Beijing in 1644-1645, he met the German Jesuit Johann Adam Schall von Bell, and received books as a gift. Some of his eunuchs got baptized and the prince requested von Bell to go with him, but that did not materialize. The prince died soon after returning to Korea, and this missionary opportunity went away.

As the envoys brought Western books into Korea, there were scholars in Korea who wished to take up studying “Western” knowledge, science and Catholicism. The Confucian philosopher Yi Ik (1681-1763) began systematically collecting and studying Western texts in Chinese language. He valued scientific texts. When it came to Catholic books, he selectively accepted things from them which aligned with Confucianism.

Early Catholic sources, including Blessed Andrew Kim Taegon, the first Korean priest, name a man named Hong Yu-han as the first one who converted to the faith due to his studies. He was one of Yi Ik’s students. Some of his friends converted as well, including Yi Seung Hoon, a member of the yearly delegation to China. “When he arrived in the Chinese capital, Yi Seung Hoon managed to get in touch with the Jesuits, and in particular Father Grammont, from whom he asked for baptism. The Jesuits themselves did not know the Korean language and writing; communication took place in writing, using Chinese characters. Father Grammont taught Lee a brief catechism, sanctioned by an examination. In January 1784 the missionary conferred baptism on the young Korean in the Beitang church, after obtaining the agreement of his father, also a member of the embassy; on this occasion the young man received a Christian first name, that of Peter, in reference to the role of founder of the Church with which Christ had entrusted the apostle. Equipped with many religious texts, Pierre Yi returned to Korea.” (source)

In 1793, the few Catholics in Korea sent two men to Beijing to ask for priests. Since an Asian was less noticeable, the Bishop of Beijing selected a Chinese priest. Zhou Wenmo was that priest.

This article is based on the article about Zhou Wenmo on the page of the Korean episcopal conference and on the lecture notes on Church history for the 2022 spring semester at the seminary of the Diocese of Jeonju.

Zhou Wenmo was born in 1752 in Kunshan County (崑山縣/昆山县) in Jiangsu Province in eastern China. He lost his parents when he was very young, so he lived with his aunt. He married at the age of 20, but his wife died after three years of marriage.

The Chinese water town of Zhouzhuang (周庄) at night in 2013. Image by Jamie Wang, CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0, here.

In Imperial China all men were theoretically allowed to become civil servants, if they took an exam known as the “imperial examination”. The exam focused on reading and writing Classical Chinese, knowledge of Chinese classics, poetry. This practice has precursors from before the time of Christ, but started to become more widespread in the Sui dynasty at the start of the 7th century.

Zhou took the examination multiple times, but failed. Around this time, he converted to Catholicism. After failing the examination, he went to Beijing to the newly established seminary under the Bishop of Beijing to study for the priesthood and was ordained sometime before 1786.

He was ministering to the faithful in his native Jiangsu province when the Bishop of Beijing asked him to go to Korea.

Due to recent unrest affecting the Catholic Church in Korea, it was felt that an Asian priest would be less noticeable. So, in February 1794, Zhou departed Beijing heading for the Korean border. He planned to cross the Yalu River, the border between China and Korea, when it was frozen, since the border was strictly surveilled. However, the river had already thawed when he got there, so he traveled around Manchuria conducting missionary work.

On December 23, 1794 at midnight, Zhou and his companions crossed the frozen Yalu and entered Uiju County in Korea. He went to Seoul and learned Korean while living in the house of a layman.

In the following years, Zhou worked as a missionary in Korea, wrote a catechism and other Christian literature.

In 1795, Zhou was denounced and the authorities began to search for him. The faithful got wind of this and Zhou was able to escape, but multiple believers were tortured and martyred. During the next year, he changed residences various times due to persecution. In September 1796, Zhou wrote a report to the Bishop of Beijing. He detailed government surveillance and the problems which the ancestral rites pose. He recommended that other missionary priests should be scientifically educated for a more favorable reception.

During the following years, he traveled around Korea, administering the sacraments and even receiving vows of virginity.

Nabawi Catholic Church in Iksan, South Korea. Image by Jeon Han in 2015, CC-BY-SA 2.0, here.

In 1795, Zhou founded the “Myeongdohoe”, the “Society for the Illumination of the Way” (Korean: 명도회, Traditional Chinese: 明道會, Simplified Chinese: 明道会), which was an association of lay people “headed by Chong Yakchong, which organized secret meetings to instruct Koreans in Catholic doctrine, with a female group led by a very brave woman, Kang Wansuk, who later hid Father Zhou in her own home.” (link) There were men and women of all classes in these associations. Women were very active in these groups.

The Myeongdohoe was loosely based upon a similar organization in China, which was in turn based on the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, an association approved by Pius IV in 1562. If someone wanted to enter the society, they had to register with the priest and study Christian teachings for a year. After that period, they could become members. The Myeongdohoe was under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception.

These faithful started to translate the Bible into Korean (the Hangul phonetic writing system), met to copy and distribute catechisms and conducted missionary activity. The lecture notes describe in detail how the societies were organized, describe their more active members and their activities.

During these years, there were periodic persecutions of believers and about 100 people were martyred. In 1801, Queen Jeongsun banned Catholicism and ordered the punishment of those who refuse to leave their faith. Zhou at first headed back to China, but he changed his mind hearing that many arrested faithful were interrogated about his whereabouts. So he gave himself up on April 24, 1801.

During his interrogation and torture he “never lost his composure, answering every question with prudence and wisdom.” (source) He was beheaded on May 31, 1801 at a river bank in Seoul known as the Saenamteo.

The website of the Korean episcopal conference relates the following about his death (automatically translated):

“The sky had been clear and bright, but suddenly dark clouds filled the heavens, and a violent storm arose, hurling stones and pouring down a torrential downpour that made it impossible to see even a few feet ahead. As soon as the execution was completed, the wind and rain ceased at once, the sun shone brightly in the sky once more, and a brilliant rainbow and clouds appeared far off at the edge of the heavens, drifting away toward the northwest.”

Saenamteo Martyr’s Shrine in Seoul. Image by Jeon Han for the Republic of Korea in 2014, CC-BY-SA 2.0, here.

After the death of Zhou, Korean Catholics sent a letter to Rome asking for priests. The next missionary priests were French, from the Paris Foreign Missions Society, and the faith grew slowly but steadily.

Antipope “Francis” (Jorge Bergoglio) “beatified” him and 123 other Korean martyrs in 2014 during his “apostolic visit” to Seoul. The same Bergoglio, who claimed in Singapore in 2024 that “[a]ll religions are paths to God. I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine.” Then why did these martyrs give their lives for Christ and the true religion?

Zhou Wenmo is an example of the Holy Catholic Church at its best: stopping at nothing to fulfill the command of our Savior: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20)

I invite readers to ask Zhou Wenmo to intercede for the restoration of the Catholic Church.
Zhou Wenmo, pray for us!