Yu So-sa

Yu So-sa (柳召史, 1761 – 23 November 1839) was one of the 103 Martyr Saints of Korean Catholicism who was martyred during the persecution of Catholics in Joseon. Her baptismal name was Caecilia.

Life

Yu So-sa was the second wife of Jeong Yak-jong Augustine, who was martyred during the Sinyu persecution of 1801, and the mother of Jeong Ha-sang Paul and Jeong Jeong-hye Elisabeth. She became a Catholic at her husband's urging and showed tremendous faith and courage during the persecution. When her husband was arrested, she was also arrested along with her three children. After some time she was released together with her three children, but Jeong Chol-sang Charles, the son of her husband's first wife, had already been martyred like her husband, and all of her property had been confiscated. She went to live in the house of her brother-in-law Jeong Yak-yong in Majae (Mahyeon) village in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, but her sister-in-law was cold toward them, so they endured great hardship.

Before long, her eldest daughter, the wife of Jeong Chol-sang, and her son also died, and of Yu So-sa's family only she, her children Jeong Ha-sang and Jeong Jeong-hye remained. One day she dreamed that her martyred husband appeared and told her that he had built eight rooms for her in Heaven, of which five were already in use and three were empty, to be used by her and her remaining children. In fact, at that time, five of her eight family members had already been martyred. The dream gave Yu So-sa great courage.

Her son Jeong Ha-sang was deeply involved in the entry of foreign missionaries into Joseon, and she had been apart from him for several years. That separation was painful to her, so when Jeong Ha-sang became an assistant to bishops and priests, she sought them out and was able to live with her son.