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230 years of Korean catholic history to be exhibited at Vatican Museum

230 years of Korean catholic history to be exhibited at Vatican Museum

Posted August. 09, 2017 07:14,   

Updated August. 09, 2017 07:54

한국어
The 230 years of Korean catholic history will be displayed in Vatican. According to the Archdiocese of Seoul on Tuesday, a special exhibition called "230 Years of Korean Catholic and Seoul" will be held at the Braccio di Carlo Magno in the Vatican Museum from September 11 through November 17.

It is the first time that a Korean exhibition is held at Vatican. "The Vatican Museum, where 6 million people visit every year, has a high entry barrier as it allows just two to three special exhibitions a year," said a staff at the Archdiocese of Seoul.

The exhibition will focus on how Korean church was given birth and the history of martyrdom and persecution, as well as introduce churches' social participation in the modern Korean society. Works exhibited are the testimony on 16 martyrs at the period of Catholic Persecution in 1839 and in 1846, as well as the autographs of Ahn Joong-geun, Korea's most well-known independence activists whose baptismal name was Thomas, left at a jail in China right before execution.

Relics of Jeong Yak-yong who was a realist scholar of Confucianism and catholic in the 18th century will also be displayed at the Vatican Museum. Among them are Admonitions on Governing the People and the Cross found at his tomb. Modern works to be exhibited include Jang Woo-sung's painting Madonna and Child, which describes Saint Mary in white Korean traditional costume with binyeo, or stick on her hair.



Yang-Hwan Jung ray@donga.com