A Korean layman of forty-eight, executed at Seoul’s Small West Gate within days of the Byeongin persecution’s outbreak in 1866.

Ioannes Baptista Nam Chong-sam was a lay Catholic of Korea, executed at the Small West Gate of Seoul on 7 March 1866 at forty-eight years old, in the opening days of the Byeongin persecution. He is one of the 103 Martyrs of Korea canonized in 1984.

Quick Facts

• Died: 7 March 1866, Small West Gate, Seoul, Korea (age 48)
• Feast Day: 20 September (with the 103 Martyrs of Korea)
• Beatified: 1968
• Canonized: 6 May 1984

Who Was Saint Ioannes Baptista Nam Chong-sam?

Nam Chong-sam died at the same site, the Small West Gate, that had already claimed several of Korea’s martyrs during the earlier Gihae persecution of 1839, a location that by 1866 had already carried decades of association with the Church’s suffering.

Historical Setting

The Byeongin persecution, launched in 1866 by the regent Heungseon Daewongun, would go on to claim thousands of lives across Korea over several years, sweeping up French missionary clergy and Korean Catholic laypeople together in the country’s worst anti-Christian campaign.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Ioannes Baptista Nam Chong-sam

The Church remembers Nam Chong-sam as one of the first casualties at a site that had already borne witness to Korean Catholic martyrdom for nearly three decades, a place of repeated sacrifice rather than a single isolated tragedy.

Canonization and Feast Day

Sixteen years passed between Pope Paul VI’s 1968 beatification of Nam Chong-sam and his canonization on 6 May 1984, when John Paul II, in Seoul, placed him among the 103 Martyrs of Korea and their common 20 September feast.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Some places carry the weight of repeated sacrifice across generations. Nam Chong-sam’s death at the Small West Gate, decades after others had already died there, invites Catholics to treat such places of martyrdom with real reverence.

A Prayer to Saint Ioannes Baptista Nam Chong-sam

Saint Ioannes Baptista Nam Chong-sam, martyred where others before you had already given their lives, pray for us at the places that carry the memory of the Church’s suffering. Amen.

Sources

• Butler’s Lives of the Saints, revised edition, entry for the Martyrs of Korea
• Vatican.va, canonization homily of Pope John Paul II, 6 May 1984, Seoul
• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, background on the Gihae and Byeongo persecutions