Biography
Agatha Kim
About Agatha Kim
Agatha Kim learned about Christianity as an adult, after growing up outside the faith. The Korean bishops' account remembers a woman who found memorizing religious teaching difficult but remained eager to learn. Her story begins with that persistence, not with an office or a public reputation.
The Seoul archdiocese's profile describes her married life and the encouragement of her Christian elder sister. It records her determination to continue with her new faith despite opposition. The profile gives 1790 as her birth year, but received accounts disagree about her age. Around 1790 is therefore an estimate, not a known birthday.
In October 1836 she was arrested with Magdalena Kim Eop-i and Barbara Han A-gi on an accusation of concealing Christian books. The bishops' biography of Magdalena records the companions' imprisonment and the postponement of their sentences. These women were held for years before the executions of 1839.
An early report by Andrew Kim Dae-geon preserves the memory of Agatha's questioning. She repeatedly refused to abandon Jesus and Mary, even when threatened with death. After her transfer to another court, fellow Christians welcomed her in prison, helped prepare her, and baptized her. The account makes their welcome part of her story: a woman who struggled to recite formal teaching was received into the community. Its reported dialogue is a remembered witness, not a surviving recording of her voice.
Agatha was beheaded outside Seosomun on May 24, 1839, with eight other Catholics. The Korean bishops commemorate her as a widow and martyr. The particulars of her home and daily work are much less fully recorded than her imprisonment and death.
In 1984 John Paul II included Agatha Kim among the 103 Korean martyrs he canonized in Seoul. The official decree singles her out as the woman who received baptism in prison. Her place in that company preserves the memory of a laywoman baptized behind prison walls.
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Prayers for Agatha Kim
Agatha Kim: sourced prayer excerpt
성녀 김 아가타
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