St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon

Explore Korean Catholic sites connected with St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon’s priesthood, imprisonment, martyrdom, relics, and burial history.

Feast: September 201821–18465 connected places1 countries

Biography

Andrew Kim Tae-gon was the first Korean-born Catholic priest. Formed during an era when the Korean Church endured persecution, he served a community whose earliest growth was driven in remarkable part by lay Catholics seeking and sharing the faith.

He was arrested and martyred in 1846. Seoul’s pilgrimage sites preserve the geography of imprisonment and execution, while other shrines preserve relics, burial memory, and the continuing witness of the Korean martyrs.

How to read this pilgrimage

The Seoul pilgrimage route lets visitors follow custody and martyrdom place by place; Mirinae and other shrines extend the story through burial and veneration.

Explore the Seoul Catholic pilgrimage →

St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon, pray for us.

On the map

Places connected with St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon

Every card states the recorded relationship so a tomb, lifetime place, relic, and later devotional shrine are not presented as interchangeable claims.

Saint Tomb · Anseong, South Korea

Mirinae Holy Ground

tomb

A secluded valley shrine containing the tomb of St. Andrew Kim Taegŏn and places connected with the Catholics who protected his remains.

Shrine · Seoul, South Korea

Saenamteo Martyrs’ Shrine

martyrdom site

A former execution ground where fourteen Catholic clergy and leaders were martyred, including St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon and Fr. James Zhou Wen-mo; nine martyrs’ remains are preserved at the memorial church.

Shrine · Seoul, South Korea

Catholic University Songsin Campus Pilgrimage Site

relic preserved here

The historic seminary campus preserves a relic of St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon, but major rebuilding makes direct cathedral access and ordinary pilgrimage difficult from 2026 through 2029.

Archaeological Site · Seoul, South Korea

Right Police Bureau Site

final imprisonment and letter

The site associated with the final Catholic martyrs of the Korean persecution era and with St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon’s final prison letter.

Shrine · Seoul, South Korea

Waegogae Martyrs’ Shrine

former temporary burial place

A shrine at Korea’s military ordinariate cathedral where remains of St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon and other martyrs were temporarily buried before later translation.

Go deeper

Books and trusted reading

Use these starting points to meet St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon beyond a short page summary. Links currently lead to library catalogs or free official Church texts; Catholic Tourist does not earn a commission from them.

Canonization of the Korean Martyrs

By St. John Paul II

The official canonization homily situates St. Andrew Kim within the remarkable lay beginnings and martyr witness of the Korean Church.

Read at the Vatican ↗