Yeoumok Sanctuary and Community

History & origins

Catholics began to gather and live at Yeou-mok in connection with the persecutions of the first half of the nineteenth century. According to the Diocese of Andong, around the time of the Gihae Persecution of 1839, the family of St. John Yi Yun-il moved from Galgol in Sangju to Yeou-mok. Around the same period, the family of Joseph Seo Chi-bo, descendants of an early Catholic family in Gyeongsang Province, fled from the Chungcheong region and settled there. They maintained contact with the nearby Catholic villages of Geonhak and Bureogi and formed a faith community in the mountainous area.

Joseph Seo Chi-bo lived his faith at Yeou-mok until his death in 1840, and three of his sons—Simon Seo In-sun, John Seo Ik-sun, and Peter Seo Tae-sun—were later martyred during the Byeongin Persecution. John Yi Yun-il served as a lay leader at Yeou-mok. When the Byeongin Persecution reached Gyeongsang Province in 1866, he was arrested together with his family and more than thirty Catholics from the village. After torture in Mungyeong and Sangju, he was transferred to the provincial capital in Daegu and was beheaded at Gwandukjeong on January 21, 1867. He was later canonized as one of the 103 Korean Martyr Saints.

Even after the persecutions ended, the memory of Yeou-mok continued as part of the history of Catholic villages and martyr faith. On September 18, 1999, the remains of Joseph Seo Chi-bo and his son Simon Seo In-sun were transferred to the present shrine. Mungyeong Parish acquired land near the former Catholic-village site, and in 2000 a large cross, altar, statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Stations of the Cross were installed as the pilgrimage area was developed. This work culminated in the blessing of the shrine by Bishop John Chrysostom Kwon Hyeok-ju of Andong on September 29, 2002.

After the shrine was established, efforts continued to restore the memory of the Catholic village itself. The Diocese of Andong's historical record notes that on September 20, 2017 a blessing Mass was celebrated for the Yeou-mok Catholic Village and a bust of St. John Yi Yun-il was unveiled. Yeou-mok thereby developed into a pilgrimage site that preserves not only the graves and memorials of martyrs but also the memory of the actual place where lay Catholic families lived together while fleeing persecution.