She was born in 1820, to a government official and his wife,
St. Magdalene Han Yong-i, who was martyred on December 29, 1839. Agatha was married at a young age, about 12 or 13 years old, but her husband was too poor to care for her, so she lived with her relatives. Agatha worked as a housekeeper for Chinese priest
Yu Pang-che Pacificus during his visit to Korea; on her request, he had her marriage annulled "so that she could be a virgin". Yu returned to China after rumors spread about their relationship, and although they subsided, she "was repentant and determined to make up for it by offering herself as a martyr to God". When Agatha was 21, she was arrested with her mother and two young Catholic women,
St. Agatha Yi Kyong-i and a servant girl; she and her mother were separated and the women were placed under house arrest in Seoul, under the surveillance of a guard. An "apostate Christian" offered Agatha freedom if she went away with him and threatened her if she refused; when she rejected him, the guards became sympathetic towards her and helped all three women escape. The servant girl, however, was re-captured, and told her captors where the other women were hiding; they were re-arrested and the guards who helped them escape were punished by their superiors. Both women refused to deny their faith despite "many severe tortures"; Agatha was brutally beaten on her legs in court. She visited her mother one last time in prison before her mother's execution. Agatha was also able to send a letter, which was "full of fervent affection and obedience to God's Will", to a friend. Agatha was beheaded a month later, on January 31, 1840, in Danggogae in what is now the
Yongsan district of Seoul, with five other Catholics. == Legacy ==