Reports said hundreds of thousands of believers attended the ceremony in Gwanghwamun plaza, Seoul as Pope Francis beatified 124 Korea’s first catholic martyrs on Saturday.

Pope Francis visited South Korea, his first trip to Asia since he became pope last March 2013, to pay tribute to the early Koreans who died in 18th and 19th centuries because of their faith, reports said.

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Paul Yun Ji-Chung, a South Korean nobleman from 18th century, was the most prominent among those to be beatified. Reports said he was executed in 1791 after opposing with Confucian officials and became the first catholic martyr.

The martyrs knew the cost of discipleship and willing to make great sacrifices, letting themselves be stripped of whatever kept them from Christ -- for they knew that Christ alone was their true treasure, Pope Francis told the crowd after the beatification ceremony.

Pope also challenged the crowd worshipers to ask what values they are willing to die for just like what those catholic martyrs did, reports said.

The examples of the beatified martyrs play significant role in today’s society where enormous wealth and crucial poverty is silently growing; where the cry of the poor is seldom heard, Pope Francis added.

The beatification ceremony was held at Gwanghwamun Square, where unrepentant Catholics lined up before they publicly executed, and around 800,000 people were there to greet the Pope, Vatican said.

Some reports said that Catholics represent only about 10 percent of South Korea’s population and with the great number of South Koreans who attended the open-air mass this means a lot to Vatican.

In 1984, St. John Paul II also canonized another 103 martyrs during his visit to South Korea, some reports confirmed.

TagsPope, Martyr, beatification