Baeti Martyr Shrine

History & origins

The Catholic communities around Baetti were formed as believers fled persecution and sought refuge in remote areas during the early nineteenth century. According to the Diocese of Cheongju, Jincheon first appears in Catholic historical records around 1813, and a Catholic village at Baetti is thought to have formed around 1830. As the persecutions of 1839 and 1846 continued, more Catholic villages appeared in the surrounding valleys, and before the 1866 persecution more than ten such communities had developed around Baetti.

The persecutions of 1866 and 1868 brought severe suffering. The diocese records roughly fifty-five martyrs associated with the area, combining named martyrs from Jincheon with graves of unidentified martyrs around Baetti. The communities were temporarily scattered, but Catholics began to return and rebuild their life of faith from around 1870.

Baetti is also closely connected with the ministry of Venerable Thomas Choe Yang-eop. Ordained a priest in 1849, he returned to Korea and traveled widely to serve dispersed Catholic communities. The villages around Baetti formed part of the broader pastoral landscape through which he ministered, and the shrine therefore preserves not only the memory of martyrs but also the dedication of a Korean priest who sought out Catholics during a time of persecution.

In the modern period, organized efforts to commemorate this heritage gradually developed. The Diocese of Cheongju records the production of shrine promotional materials in 1977, a diocesan martyrs’ commemoration in 1978, the appointment of the first shrine director in 1993, the beginning of preparatory work for Choe Yang-eop’s beatification and canonization cause in 1995, and the dedication of Baetti Church in 1997. Through this process, Baetti became a major pilgrimage site of the diocese preserving the memory of its Catholic villages, martyrs, and Choe Yang-eop’s ministry.