Dae-an Catholic Church

History & origins

Daean Parish was established on July 1, 1965, but the Catholic significance of the site reaches much further back, to the persecutions of the late Joseon period. The Gyeongsang provincial government office was an administrative center for the region, and Catholics arrested during persecutions were brought there for interrogation and imprisonment.

During the Eulhae Persecution of 1815, Catholics from areas including Cheongsong, Jinbo, and the Ilwolsan region were taken to the provincial office. Some died under beating or in prison, while several survivors were later beheaded at Gwandeokjeong. Catholics arrested in the aftermath of the Jeonghae Persecution of 1827 were also imprisoned here, and the site received numerous prisoners during the Gyeongsin Persecution of 1860 and the Byeongin Persecution of 1866, including Peter Seo Tae-sun and John Yi Yun-il. This history shows that Daegu’s martyr narrative encompasses not only the place of execution at Gwandeokjeong but also the prolonged suffering endured in the provincial prison.

After the parish was established, this historical memory was preserved within the community. In 2016, marking the 200th anniversary of the martyrs of the Eulhae Persecution, a monument to seven beatified martyrs was erected and blessed. In 2025 the parish celebrated the 60th anniversary of its establishment with a Mass of Thanksgiving and Confirmation. Daean’s history can therefore be understood as the convergence, in one place, of a twentieth-century parish community and the memory of nineteenth-century Catholic martyrdom.