SAINT COUPLES | KAIROS GLOBAL | NOVEMBER 2020

Author: Joseph Sebastian & Bijie Santhosh

St. Augustine Pak Chong-won and St. Barbara Ko Sun-i

Feast: 20th September

History

Korea at the end of the eighteenth century was a society based on Confucianism – with rigid hierarchical, class relationships. Scholars and nobility formed the educated minority while the tax-paying, labour-providing commoners were the majority. Being located between China and Japan, Korea had ties to both countries. 

Christianity, having already spread to China and Japan, came to Korea in the 17th century. Catholic books in Chinese, obtained from the Jesuits in China, began to appear in Korea at that time. The Korean scholars came to know of this new religion, began reading these books on Catholicism and started practicing it themselves. The doors of the Church were opened to all from the beginning itself and soon majority of the faithful comprised the oppressed commoners.

The government found the Catholic Church in Korea opposed to the precepts of Confucianism. They considered equality of all humans to be a dangerous idea that went against the social hierarchical system. Furthermore, as the new Church was in communion with the Apostolic Vicariate of Beijing, the Korean government declared it a criminal act for Catholics to contact foreigners without permission. Thus began the persecution of the fledgling Church in Korea. Around ten-thousand faithful died as martyrs in persecutions that lasted for over a hundred years. 

Saints Augustine Pak Chong-won and Barbara Ko Sun-i

At the age of eighteen, Barbara Ko Sun-i, the daughter of a Korean martyr, married Augustine Pak Chong-won, a devout Catholic. Three children were born to them. The couple devoted themselves to the care of the poor and the sick. Barbara taught catechumens to the illiterate. Augustine served as a catechist under Bishop Laurent Imbert, one of the first French Missionaries who came to Korea. Augustine longed for martyrdom. ‘As Jesus loved me, I have to love him. As he suffered for me, I must suffer,’ he would say.

In 1839, another round of persecutions began. Augustine left home and busied himself in the care of his brethren, comforting those in hiding and bringing solace to those in prison. At last, he himself was arrested, on October 26, 1839. The next day Barbara was arrested too. The husband and wife met in prison and were able to comfort to each other. They were interrogated together and asked to renounce their faith, which they promptly denied. Both were cruelly tortured so many times and so severely that they lost the use of their arms and legs. 

After one particularly vicious session, in which the flesh was torn off her body, Barbara was heard to say, ‘I used to be afraid of tortures, but now the Holy Spirit has blessed a sinner like me, and I am no longer afraid of tortures. I am so happy. I did not know that it was so easy to die.’

Barbara was beheaded in Seoul on December 29, 1839. In 32 days, Augustine followed her in martyrdom on January 31, 1840. 

Augustine Pak Chong-won and Barbara Ko Sun-i were among the 103 Korean Martyrs (that included several couples, the first Korean priest, Andrew Kim Tae-gon and Bishop Laurent Imbert) who were canonised by Pope John Paul II on 6th May 1984. This was the first canonisation ceremony ever to be held outside the Vatican. In his homily during the canonisation mass, Pope St. John Paul II said, ‘The death of the martyrs is similar to the death of Christ on the Cross, because, like his, theirs has become the beginning of new life.’