Sangju Cheongri Confession of Faith Monument

History & origins

The background of the Cheongni Monument of Faith is connected with Dominic Kim Sam-rok, who is remembered for maintaining his Catholic faith around the time of the Byeongin Persecution. Catholic GoodNews states that the four sons of Kim Bok-un were said to have been Catholics before the persecution of 1866 and that the second son, Kim Sam-rok, remained faithful through the persecution. The directory of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea dates the carving of his profession of faith to the period from 1894 to the early years around 1900.

The rock bears prayers for God, the pope, the bishop, priests, and fellow Catholics. Its content therefore goes beyond a private devotional statement and remembers both the universal Church and the local community to which the carver belonged. Because the profession was engraved in stone rather than hidden at a time when memories of persecution were still close, it has particular importance as a document of local Catholic history.

The monument became widely known within the Church only in the 1980s. According to GoodNews, a priest of Seomun-dong Parish learned of it from a descendant in 1982, and further investigation, including a visit by Father O Gi-seon in 1984, helped establish it as a Catholic historic site. The Diocese of Andong and local parishes then began securing the surrounding land, and in 1999 Oksan Parish led the installation of a large cross, an altar, Stations of the Cross, and other elements to prepare the area as a devotional site.

Public cultural-heritage recognition followed. The National Heritage Portal records that the Sangju Catholic Monument of Faith was designated Gyeongsangbuk-do Cultural Heritage Material No. 562 on December 28, 2009. What began as an individual profession of faith carved in stone was thus preserved through family memory, Church investigation, and development of the site, eventually receiving formal protection as public heritage. Read together, the CBCK directory’s dating of 1894 to the early 1900s and GoodNews’s description of the post-persecution setting suggest that the monument was created by a generation for whom memories of persecution were still vivid even after legal space for Catholic life had expanded. Retaining this date range rather than forcing an exact day is more faithful to the evidence and better reflects the long process by which a personal act of devotion became part of the Church’s historical heritage.