Saint Cecilia Yu So-sa

Saint Cecilia Yu So-sa was a Korean widow and mother who died in prison in Seoul during the persecution of Christians in 1839. She is one of the 103 holy Korean martyrs. The Roman Martyrology commemorates her on November 23, the day of her death, and together with the other martyrs of Korea the Church honors her on September 20.

She was born in 1761; the sources are silent about her childhood and youth. Her husband was Augustine Chong Yak-jong, a scholar from a well-known family, who had been widowed and took her as his second wife. He was one of the leaders of the young Church in Korea and wrote the first catechism in the Korean language. It was he who brought Cecilia to the faith. The Church in that country was founded by laypeople themselves, and for its first decades the faithful had almost no priests.

In 1801, during a great persecution, Augustine was beheaded in Seoul, and a little more than a month later his son by his first marriage, Charles, was killed. Both were beatified by Pope Francis in 2014. Cecilia was imprisoned together with her three children, and when she was released, the family’s property had already been confiscated. She went to live with her brother-in-law at Majae, where she lived in extreme poverty and met with the ill will of her relatives. Her eldest daughter soon died; her son Paul and her daughter Elizabeth remained to her.

As a young man Paul Chong Ha-sang devoted himself to rebuilding a Church left without priests. He traveled to Beijing many times to ask for missionaries, and each parting was a hard trial for his mother. When French missionaries reached Korea and Paul became their assistant, Cecilia came to live with him in Seoul. She was by then too old to work, and prayer filled her days.

When a new persecution broke out in 1839, one of her relatives offered her shelter in the countryside. She refused: as it has been handed down, she wanted to share martyrdom with her son. In July she was arrested together with Paul and Elizabeth. Despite her advanced age she was treated as a criminal of the state. The Roman Martyrology records that she was interrogated twelve times, and according to the accounts gathered by the missionaries she was given 230 blows with a stick in all. To the end she answered her judges openly and did not renounce the faith.

Korean law did not allow people of such advanced age to be beheaded, so she was left in prison. Her son Paul was beheaded on September 22, 1839. Cecilia, worn out by torture, died on November 23, calling, as was recorded, on the names of Jesus and Mary. She was nearly eighty years old. Her daughter Elizabeth was beheaded on December 29 of the same year.

Pope Pius XI beatified Cecilia Yu So-sa on July 5, 1925, among 79 Korean martyrs. John Paul II canonized her on May 6, 1984, in Seoul, together with 102 other martyrs, among them her son and her daughter. The decretal letter of canonization names her briefly: Cecilia Yu So-sa, mother of Paul.