About this place
Imdang-dong Pilgrimage Church refers to the same physical church as Imdang-dong Catholic Church, but the designation emphasizes its role as a place of pilgrimage where the faith of the martyr Stephen Sim Neung-seok is remembered and prayed over rather than its ordinary parish function. Both the Catholic Directory of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea and the Diocese of Chuncheon present the site as a Catholic historic and pilgrimage place associated with Stephen Sim.
Stephen Sim Neung-seok links the witness of faith during the Byeongin Persecution with the Catholic history of the Yeongdong region. The fact that he lived for a time in the Gangneung area connects his story with the memory of the Catholic villages preserved in the history of Imdang-dong Church. The pilgrimage meaning of this place should therefore not be understood as claiming that his martyrdom occurred on the church grounds, but as a place to remember the persecuted Church of Gangneung and Yeongdong and to contemplate the life of a candidate for beatification.
History & origins
Stephen Sim Neung-seok was born in Hoengseong, Gangwon, in 1819. Around 1838, he learned Catholic teaching from Park Seong-go in Gwangju, Gyeonggi, and received baptism after welcoming Father James Chastan into his home. He later moved to Sanuisil in Yongin and, around 1862, relocated to Gyechon in the Gangneung area, also known as Gurawe, where he continued to live his Catholic faith.
During the continuing Byeongin Persecution, Sim was arrested in 1868 and taken to Seoul. The biographical record for candidates for beatification published by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea states that he was tortured at the Left Police Bureau in Seoul and was martyred sometime after June 30, 1868. His death did not occur in Gangneung, but the years he spent there practicing the faith tie his story closely to the history of persecution in the Yeongdong region.
Because Imdang-dong Parish continues the tradition of the old Catholic communities of Gangneung and Yeongdong, the church is now also presented as a pilgrimage church commemorating Stephen Sim Neung-seok. The Catholic Directory lists it as “Imdang-dong Pilgrimage Church – Martyr Stephen Sim Neung-seok.” The historical meaning of the pilgrimage site lies not in confusing the martyr's biography with the foundation history of the parish, but in connecting the memory of persecuted Catholics in Gangneung with present-day prayer and commemoration.
Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia
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- 한국천주교주교회의 온라인 주소록
Diocese
Chuncheon Diocese (Diocese of Chuncheon)
Official website: http://www.cccatholic.or.kr
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