A married Catholic laywoman from Gangwon province who was executed in Seoul during the Gihae persecution of 1839, one of Korea’s 103 canonized martyrs.

Saint Anna Pak A-gi was a Korean Catholic laywoman born around 1783 in Kangchon, in Gangwon-do province, who later lived and practiced her Catholic faith amid the ongoing threat of state persecution that marked Korean Catholicism throughout the early nineteenth century. A married woman, she is recorded in the sources simply as a lay believer swept into the general roundup of Catholics carried out during the Gihae persecution of 1839, one of the harshest of the century’s anti-Catholic crackdowns. Arrested and refusing to abandon her faith under interrogation, she was executed at the Small West Gate execution ground in Seoul on May 24, 1839, at fifty-seven years old. Her death occurred within weeks of that of several other Catholics later canonized alongside her, part of a wave of martyrdoms in the capital that spring and summer that the Church later recognized collectively as the 103 Martyrs of Korea.

Quick Facts

• Born: around 1783, in Kangchon, Gangwon-do province, Korea
• Died: May 24, 1839 (age 57), at the Small West Gate, Seoul, Korea
• Feast Day: September 20, with Saint Andrew Kim Taegon and Companions
• Beatified: July 5, 1925, by Pope Pius XI
• Canonized: May 6, 1984, in Seoul, by Pope John Paul II
• Patron of: lay Catholics of Korea and Catholic married women

Who Was Saint Anna Pak A-gi?

Anna Pak A-gi came from Kangchon in Gangwon-do, a mountainous province some distance from the capital, and would have encountered Catholicism through the same underground networks of catechists and lay leaders that carried the faith across Korea in the decades after its introduction in the 1780s, largely without resident clergy. By the time of her arrest she was living, evidently, closer to Seoul, since her trial and death took place at the capital’s execution ground. As a married laywoman, her Catholic practice would have unfolded almost entirely within private, hidden gatherings, since public worship was illegal and discovery could bring imprisonment or death not only to herself but to her family and any fellow believers she was found to be in contact with. When the Gihae persecution intensified in the spring of 1839, driven by the regency government’s determination to root out Catholicism from the kingdom, Anna Pak A-gi was among those arrested, tried, and, upon her refusal to apostatize, executed on May 24, 1839. Beyond these essential facts, detailed biographical information about her family life and the specific circumstances of her arrest does not appear to survive in commonly accessible sources.

Historical Setting

The Gihae persecution of 1839 unfolded against a backdrop of factional struggle at the Joseon court following the death of King Sunjo and the installation of a child king, Heonjong, under a regency dominated by officials hostile to Catholicism. The persecution targeted not only foreign missionaries who had begun entering Korea in secret but the far larger number of Korean lay Catholics who made up the actual body of the Church. Executions were carried out at several sites in and around Seoul, including the Small West Gate, over the course of many months in 1839, claiming the lives of dozens of believers, men and women, from a range of social backgrounds and regions of the country, including, like Anna Pak A-gi, some who had traveled or relocated some distance from their home provinces.

Why the Church Venerates Saint Anna Pak A-gi

Anna Pak A-gi is venerated as one of the many ordinary lay Catholics whose collective refusal to renounce their faith, even under the threat and reality of execution, allowed the Korean Church to survive nearly a century of illegality before it was finally granted legal toleration in the 1880s. Her martyrdom, like those of her companions, is honored not for any office she held but simply for the fact that, offered the chance to save her life by apostasy, she did not take it.

Canonization and Feast Day

She was beatified on July 5, 1925, by Pope Pius XI as part of a group of martyrs from the 1839 persecution, and canonized on May 6, 1984, when Pope John Paul II traveled to Seoul to canonize 103 Korean Martyrs in a single ceremony — a group spanning the persecutions of 1801, 1839, and 1866. Her feast is kept on September 20, shared with Saint Andrew Kim Taegon and all the other Korean Martyrs.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Anna Pak A-gi’s willingness to travel, worship in secret, and finally die rather than deny her faith reflects a form of Catholic commitment built almost entirely on personal conviction rather than institutional support. Her example challenges contemporary readers to consider how deeply their own faith is rooted — whether it depends chiefly on external structures and social approval, or whether, like hers, it could withstand the total removal of both.

A Prayer to Saint Anna Pak A-gi

Saint Anna Pak A-gi, hidden believer of Gangwon-do who traveled far and gave everything for Christ, pray for those who must practice their faith far from home or in secret today. Intercede for the persecuted Church throughout Asia and the world, that it may draw strength from your quiet perseverance. Obtain for us the courage to remain faithful even when no one is watching and no reward but heaven is offered. Amen.

Sources

• Vatican.va, canonization homily of Pope John Paul II, May 6, 1984
• the Roman Martyrology
• EWTN
• the Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent), entries on the Church in Korea