Martyrs' Museum of Korea

History & origins

The museum grew out of the work of the Sisters of the Blessed Korean Martyrs to honor and preserve the memory of the martyrs. After its foundation, the congregation collected relics of martyrs, materials on church history, and folk objects that helped explain life during the periods of persecution. After a martyrs’ memorial complex had been established at Jeoldusan in Seoul, the sisters decided to create a similar place of remembrance in the Busan region. With the cooperation of the Diocese of Busan, they founded an Oryundae convent on June 13, 1969, and began preparing for a memorial hall.

In 1975, relics of twenty-six Korean martyr saints were enshrined behind the altar of the Martyrs’ Church, and the following year the groundbreaking ceremony for the Korean Martyrs Memorial Hall was held. The Martyrs’ Church was consecrated in 1977, and the memorial building was completed in 1981. On September 25, 1982, the Oryundae Korean Martyrs Memorial Hall officially opened, providing a permanent place to preserve and display the materials gathered by the sisters.

On March 2, 2009, the institution was registered with the City of Busan as the “Oryundae Korean Martyrs Museum,” taking on its present name and formal museum status. The transition from memorial hall to registered museum was an institutional milestone showing that materials gathered for the veneration of the martyrs had entered a more systematic framework of collection, preservation, and exhibition. The museum’s history thus traces the expansion of the sisters’ work of martyr remembrance into a permanent memorial hall and then into a professional museum structure.