K
KIM TAEGON, Andrew
By Pierre Joppen
Oct 24, 2009, 09:28

Andrew Kim Taegon was born in Nol-Mae (Solmoe), Chu’ung-Chong Province (in South Central Korea. At the age of seven, the Kim family moved to Golbaemasil Mankok-ri, Youngin-gun County (Mirinae) Kyungki Province. Kim’s great-grandfather, Kim Jin-Hu was martyred in 1814. Kim’s grand-uncle, Kim Han-hyun was also martyred in 1816. Kim’s father, Kim Je-jun (Ignatius Kim), was subsequently martyred in 1839 for practicing Christianity.

After being baptized at the age of 15, Kim traveled over 1200 miles in 1836 to study at a seminary in the Portuguese Colony of Macau, China. He returned to Korea through Manchuria. That same year, he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai, where he was ordained a priest in 1845 by the French Bishop, Jean Ferréol. He then returned to Korea to preach and evangelize. These grueling trips between China and Korea, on foot and by small unworthy fishing vessels, allowed Kim to explore the terrain and increase the accuracy of the maps he had been using to plan better routes for the French missionaries to infiltrate Korea.

In June of 1846, while trying to arrange for passage for additional missionaries to enter Korea by boat along the southeast coast, Kim was arrested by the border patrol.
On September 26, at the age of 25, Kim was tortured and beheaded near Seoul on the Han River. His ears were pierced with arrows; his face covered with lime. A group of Christians led, by Yi Min-Sik, later moved his body to Mt. Mi-ri-nai, about 35 miles from Seoul.

He is famous for his map of Korea which he managed to get out of the country before he was captured. The map was brought to France by M. Montigny who was the first Consul for France at Shanghai. The map is now archived in the Département des Cartes et Plans, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (reference number: Ge C 10622).

Victor Adolf Malte-Brun (1816-1889) was the son of the Danish geographer Conrad Malte-Brun, who moved to Paris approx. 1800 and worked with the French historian Edmé Mentelle on many of his works. Victor continued his father's work reproducing the Atlas "Précis de la Géographie Universelle ou description de toutes les parties du monde" after his father died. He based a map on the map of André Kim which was published in the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Paris in 1855.

Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gon is known as Korea's first Roman Catholic priest.




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