Martyr Felix Peter Kim Kilyang Shrine

History & origins

Felix Peter Kim Gi-ryang was born in Hamdeok, Jeju, in 1816 and earned his living as a merchant who traveled by boat. In February 1857 he set out to trade with companions, but their vessel was caught in a storm and drifted for more than a month before he was rescued in waters off Guangdong, China. He was taken to the Far Eastern headquarters of the Paris Foreign Missions Society in Hong Kong, where he learned the Catholic faith from a Korean seminarian. He was baptized in May of that year and later returned to Korea.

After returning home, he taught the faith to members of his family and to men who worked with him at sea. In 1858 he also met Fr. Féron and Fr. Thomas Choe Yang-eop. After the Byeongin Persecution began in 1866, however, he traveled to Tongyeong for trade and was arrested on Ge-seom when his Catholic identity became known. He was taken to the Tongyeong government office, where he endured repeated interrogation and punishment.

Kim Gi-ryang refused to apostatize despite severe torture and, while imprisoned, encouraged fellow Catholics to remain firm in their faith. The Tongyeong official reported to the governor of Daegu that he could not be made to recant. After further beatings, he was ordered to be hanged in prison. He was martyred in Tongyeong in January 1867 at the age of fifty-one. The area of the former Tongyeong government office and prison is remembered today as a place of his witness.

The Catholic Church in Korea continued to honor his faith and martyrdom, and on August 16, 2014, Pope Francis beatified him in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, together with Paul Yun Ji-chung and his companion martyrs. The martyrdom site in Tongyeong is the place where a life that began on Jeju reached its final witness, preserving the memory of a layman whose evangelizing life and martyrdom link the local histories of the Korean Catholic Church.