Jukrim-dong Martyrs' Shrine

History & origins

The meaning of the Jungnim-dong clergy cemetery as a martyrs’ shrine begins with the history of priests connected with the Diocese of Chuncheon who were killed during the Korean War and the persecution surrounding it. According to materials of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, Columban Father Anthony Collier was killed in Chuncheon on June 27, 1950; Father James Maginn in Samcheok on July 4; and Father Patrick Reilly in Gangneung on August 29. The remains of these three priests are now buried in the Jungnim-dong cemetery.

Fathers Baek Eung-man, Kim Gyo-myeong, Lee Gwang-jae, and Francis Canavan also lost their lives amid the war and communist persecution, but because their remains could not be brought to the cemetery, cenotaphs were created for them here. The Diocese of Chuncheon and the Church in Korea have remembered these seven priests not merely as casualties of war, but as modern witnesses of faith who died while remaining faithful to their vocation.

On September 17, 2017, the Diocese of Chuncheon formally proclaimed the clergy cemetery as the “Jungnim-dong Martyrs’ Shrine.” Since then it has become a place where the faithful venerate the graves and cenotaphs of the martyred priests and pray for their beatification and canonization. The seven priests are currently included in the cause of the “Servants of God Bishop Francis Borgia Hong Yong-ho and 80 Companions,” and the cemetery continues to transform the wounds of the Korean War into a living memory of the Church expressed through prayer.