After the righteous army seized military provisions in the
process of suppressing the revolt of Donghak peasants’
army in Hwanghae-do in 1894, Ahn’s father Tae-hun
received extreme distress due to the pressure for repaying
money from a corrupt official Eo Yun-jung and Min Yeong-jun,
former director of the Agency to Bestow Blessings
(Seonhyecheong). Ahn Tae-hun escaped to Myeongdong
Cathedral and stayed there for several months with the aid
of French Catholic. During the period, he read the Bible and
listened sermons delivered by the fathers and finally decided
to become a believer in Catholicism and devoted himself to
the religious activities.
When the controversy over the military provisions were settled, Ahn Tae-hun accompanied catechism teacher Yi Jong-rae
(Paul) and distributed some 120 books including Catholic Catechism and 12 Catholic Prayers and actively staged a religious
campaign in seven villages including Cheonggye-dong. At that time, Ahn Tae-hun requested Father Wilhelm at the main
cathedral in Maehwa-dong to establish a public house. Thirty-three villagers at Cheonggye-dong including him and his family
members were baptized by Father Wilhelm. The baptismal names of Ahn Tae-hun and his wife were Peter and Maria, while
those of Ahn Jung-geun and his wife were Thomas and Agnes (in the year 1897).
A devout Catholic, Ahn at age 19 was deeply pious and focused on everything Catholic as well as learning catechism earnestly. Ahn helped Fathers as a Catholic beatus
and was active in propagation of Catholicism. A lion’s share of the contents in Autobiography of Ahn Eung-chil by Ahn Jung-geun is fully devoted to those related to
Catholicism. Ahn explained God’s omnipresence and omnipotence as well as complete goodness and perfect righteousness, saying that God judges the world and
dispenses reward and punishment to each soul. Reward is the everlasting blessing of heaven and punishment is the everlasting pain of hell, according to Ahn.
“Men are destined to live no longer than 100 years at the utmost. The wise and the foolish alike and the precious and the underprivileged people alike, men are born
naked and die without a shred of clothing, too. ‘Coming empty-handed and leaving the world with an empty pocket’: that is the core message. …… If people don’t
believe in heaven and hell under the reason that they haven’t seen heaven and hell, it is as if a posthumous son wouldn’t believe in existence of his father under the
reason he hadn’t seen his father and as if a visually handicapped person wouldn’t believe in the existence of the sun in the sky under the reason that he hadn’t seen the
sky. …… Almost all men of considerable learning with broad vision around the civilized world believe in Jesus Christ. Jesus told his disciples, “In generations to come,
hypocrites will appear without failure and mislead the people using my name. You should not make a blunder. Christ is the only gate to heaven.”
Though Thomas Ahn Jung-geun lived a very short life, he weathered the crisis with a firm belief in Catholicism and Jesus Christ, all for the independence of Korea and
the peace of East Asia.
