Four cross-shaped tombstones mark the graves of child martyrs in the Hanti Martyrs' Shrine in Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang Province. Courtesy of Lee Seoung-ho

Lee Seoung-ho felt his heart was sinking when four children's graves near a Catholic cemetery caught his eye six years ago. The cemetery, which is home to 37 tombs of Catholic martyrs sacrificed in the bloody persecution in the 19th century, is part of the Hanti Martyrs' Shrine Pilgrimage, a 45.6- kilometer route stretched along Mount Palgong in the rustic southeastern county of Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province.

All tombs there held the bodies of anonymous Catholic converts who were brutally killed for refusing to deny Christ.

Those tombs have no information about the martyrs. The victims are identified only by a number from 1 to 37 engraved in their tombstones.

Sharing the heart-rending story of the four young martyrs, Lee, 62, said he became speechless. He added that he was grappling with the surge of complex feelings, as he imagined four carefree, playful kids who all of sudden perished at the brutal swords wielded by soldiers during the clampdown on Catholics.

"Those unknown souls haunted me and guided me to embark on field trips to find the traces of Catholic martyrs nationwide over the past six years," he told The Korea Times over the phone.

Lee, who retired from public service a few years ago after decades of work as a Daegu city government employee, is a Buddhist born into a family that has practiced Buddhism for generations.

This photo shows the interior of a "gongso," an early Catholic cathedral of humble construction, in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province. A cross and framed images of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary are displayed on the wall. Courtesy of Lee Seoung-ho

Touched by their tragic stories, he said he was determined to find traces of Korea's early Catholics and their sacrifices.

"It was unstoppable," he said. "I don't know exactly what it was, but I was driven by something to unearth the history of Korean Catholicism because there was an unknown force that kept pushing me to find them and chronicle their lives. Maybe that energy came from my first shocking encounter with the children's graves on the pilgrimage."

His years of work eventually bore fruit. Last October, he published a photobook, titled "Gongso: A Place Cherishing Memories of Korean Catholicism."

The photos of the time-honored sanctuaries serenely narrate the unspeakable ordeals and tribulations early Korean Catholics had endured to keep their sacred commitments.

"Gongso," which translates to "public place" in English, refers to a church with non-resident priests. It was created far before Korea's first towering cathedral was established in central Seoul's Jungnim-dong area in 1891. The nation has 550 such places.

Gongso were dual-use facilities. During weekdays, they were homes for the leaders of the religious communities created in the middle of nowhere deep in the mountains. Those places were open to other community members on Sunday for worshipping. The members were the Catholics who fled their homes to seek religious freedom as persecutions continued. Priests visited there once or twice a year.

"The entire community became festive once Catholic priests came by and presided over communal services there," Lee said.

Documentary photographer Lee Seoung-ho explains his photo during an exhibition at CU Gallery in Daegu in 2020. Courtesy of Lee Seoung-ho

The history of the Korean Catholic Church had been marked by a sequence of tribulations which lasted for a century since the first wave of persecution in the early 18th century.

Early Catholics in Korea risked their lives by practicing the religion. The worst clampdown erupted in 1866 and continued for five years, killing over 8,000 Catholics, including several French missionaries.

They were killed without standing trial. Once arrested, they were given one last chance to save their own lives. The officials would throw a wooden cross on the floor, and then ask the arrested people to walk over it to deny Christ. If they did, they were allowed to return home. Some saved themselves by doing what they were ordered. But many dedicated converts refused to deny Christ, and met a tragic end. They were beheaded.

"Then Joseon's ruling class took Catholicism as a disruptive force because they believed the religion posed a grave threat to the Confucian-based hierarchical society," Ban Byung-yule, a professor of history at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, said. "They were wary of the Western religion and felt it could threaten their rule and disrupt society."

Facing waves of fierce persecution, Catholic converts began to flee their villages to find hideouts in the middle of nowhere wherein they could continue practicing their faith with other Catholics without the fear of being arrested and killed.

They built mud huts as makeshift homes to live in. During daylight hours, they made clay jars, collected medicinal herbs and firewood and sold them to make ends meet.

"Once a week, people there gathered in gongso, prayed and worshipped together," Lee said. "Gongso used to have various Catholic-related goods, such as a statue of Virgin Mary, a cross, rosary and bibles which had been imported from China."

The ban on Catholicism was fully lifted in 1886 when Joseon signed a pact with France to establish diplomatic relations.

"Joseon established diplomatic relations with France relatively late, compared to other Western countries, because of Catholics. France was aggressive on religious freedom and wanted Joseon to allow its missionaries to spread Catholicism in Korea," Ban said.

A unknown martyr's grave is seen in this photo taken at the Hanti Martyrs' Shrine in Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang Province. The number 26 is engraved in the tombstone without any further information about the victim. Courtesy of Lee Seoung-ho

Catholicism's survival in Korea amid continued persecution raises questions about the early Korean Catholics. Who were those martyrs? How did they become so pious as to have risked their lives to keep practicing the religion despite the threat of death?

Lee said Catholicism gave them a unique encounter with a new realm, devoid of class-based discrimination, and fostering equal opportunities for all individuals.

"Like many other societies back then, Joseon was socially very rigid. The society was operated based on four distinct classes in which inter-class mobility was prohibited. Discrimination based on class had been part of life and those who had humble beginnings were not allowed to climb the ladder, no matter how smart they were," said Lee.

In Joseon, there were four social classes: the yangban nobility, the middle class called "jungin," commoners called "sangmin" and the outcasts called "cheonmin" at the very bottom.

Inside the Catholic community, however, Lee said things were quite different and all people were treated as equals regardless of their social class.

"Catholicism taught people that they are equal in Christ. People gathered, prayed and ate together, regardless of class," Lee said. "People from higher and lower classes doing something together in the same place was unthinkable back then. So people, particularly those who were from the lower classes, might have felt that they lived in a very different world."

The middle-class accounted for most of the early converts. They were professionals like translators and doctors and due to their professions, they traveled to China where they were exposed to foreign culture.

Gongso been forgotten after the ban on Catholicism was lifted. Since the establishment of Yakhyeon Cathedral in 1891, as the first of its kind in Korea, cathedrals have been established in almost all provincial cities.

Together with religious freedom, the younger generation's job-driven migration from rural to urban areas and an ensuing population decrease also contributed to a sharp drop in visitors to gongso located in remote areas. Many of these early Catholic churches are abandoned.

Lee said the publication of his photobook is not the end of his journey to discover gongso, adding he will continue to visit them and fulfill his role to make society aware of the sufferings of early Korean Catholics.

"I've visited so far about half of the 550 gongso, and I am planning to visit the rest of them," he said.

They are places where present-day Koreans can come to understand more about early Korean Catholics and their sufferings, and their sacrifices should be remembered, he said.

A statue of the Virgin Mary is displayed in a gongso located in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province. Courtesy of Lee Seoung-ho