Yi Seung-hun

Dallet says that Yi Seung-hun was born in 1756 into a family of officials and took the doctor’s degree in 1780 (Dallet, Histoire de l’Église de Corée, vol. 1, p. 16). He went to Beijing with his father’s embassy at the end of 1783 and was baptized there before it left, taking the name Peter; the missionary who reported it described him as twenty-seven years old and a good scholar (Dallet, Histoire de l’Église de Corée, vol. 1, pp. 18–19 (letter of M. de Ventavon, 25 November 1784)). Back in Seoul he baptized Yi Byeok and Kwon Il-sin (Dallet, Histoire de l’Église de Corée, vol. 1, p. 22). The Catholic bishops of Korea call these three the founding fathers of their church (Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, History, ‘Development of the Early Catholic Church in Korea’, section 1).

Dallet records that in 1785, under pressure from his family, he burned his books and put out a writing to excuse himself for having been a Christian (Dallet, Histoire de l’Église de Corée, vol. 1, pp. 27–28), that he later returned and was among those who drafted the letter of 1789 to the bishop of Beijing (Dallet, Histoire de l’Église de Corée, vol. 1, pp. 30–32), and that he was beheaded outside the West Gate of the capital on 8 April 1801, aged forty-five (Dallet, Histoire de l’Église de Corée, vol. 1, pp. 121–122). See Korean Scholars Found a Church.