Andrew Kim Taegon

Life events

1. Born — 1821

   Andrew Kim Taegon was born on 21 August 1821 into the Gimhae Kim clan, an aristocratic Yangban family whose members — his father, uncles, and grandfathers — were subsequently martyred for practising Christianity, which was a prohibited activity in heavily Confucian Korea.

2. Baptized — 1836

   Kim was baptized at age 15, the same year the Paris Foreign Missions Society sent its first consecrated missionaries to Korea, only to find an existing community of Korean Catholics already practising their faith covertly.

3. Educated — 1836

   Following his baptism, Kim undertook nine years of seminary formation: first at a seminary in the Portuguese colony of Macau, then at Lolomboy, Bocaue, Bulacan in the Philippines, where he is venerated to this day.

4. Ordained — 1844

   In 1844 Kim was ordained a priest in Shanghai by the French bishop Jean Joseph Jean-Baptiste Ferréol, becoming the first Korean Catholic priest after nearly a decade of formation abroad.

5. Other — 1844

   After ordination Kim returned to Korea and conducted his ministry clandestinely under the Joseon government's active suppression of Catholicism, in which thousands of practitioners were persecuted and executed.

6. Martyred — 1846

   In 1846, at the age of 25, Kim was arrested, tortured, and beheaded near Seoul on the Han River on 16 September 1846. His recorded final statement called on bystanders to become Christians, framing his death as the beginning of immortal life.

7. Other — 1984

   On 6 May 1984, Pope John Paul II canonized Kim together with 102 other Korean Martyrs — including Paul Chong Hasang — during a papal visit to Korea. Their joint feast day falls on 20 September.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Kim was the first Korean Catholic priest, ordained in Shanghai in 1844 by bishop Jean Joseph Jean-Baptiste Ferréol after nine years of seminary formation in Macau and the Philippines. (likely)
• Kim's father, uncles, and grandfathers were all martyred for practising Christianity in Joseon Korea, making his own execution part of a multigenerational pattern of Catholic martyrdom within a single Yangban clan. (likely)
• Kim's last words before his beheading on 16 September 1846 urged bystanders to become Christians, framing his death as the start of immortal life and warning of God's eternal judgment for those who refused. (plausible)
• Bishop Ferréol, the first bishop of Korea, requested before dying on 3 February 1853 to be buried beside Kim, saying: 'You will never know how sad I was to lose this young native priest. I have loved him as a father loved his son.' (likely)
• Kim is venerated as the patron saint of Korean clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, a designation reflecting his status as the first Korean to be ordained a Catholic priest. (likely)