진목정

Name: 진목정
Address: 경상북도 경주시 산내면 수의길 192, KR
Telephone: +82-54-751-6488

Shrine

About this place

Jinmokjeong is a martyr shrine of the Archdiocese of Daegu in Sannae-myeon, Gyeongju, dedicated to honoring three Blesseds: James Heo In-baek, Peter Lee Yang-deung, and Luke Kim Jong-ryun. Archdiocesan materials introduce it as a shrine in Gyeongju and identify as its principal elements Beomgul Cave, where the martyrs’ families hid and lived, a memorial monument, the Jinmokjeong mission chapel, a place commemorating the burial site of the three Blesseds, and Haneulwon behind the altar.

The meaning of the site is not limited to remembering the act of martyrdom itself. The hiding place, the spaces where later generations preserved the martyrs’ memory, and the facilities for prayer all remain within the same area, allowing pilgrims to trace in space the experience of life under persecution, death for the faith, and the later preservation of memory by Catholics. The Archdiocese of Daegu continues to maintain Jinmokjeong as an archdiocesan shrine and has held walking pilgrimages and Masses in honor of the martyrs there.

Official source

History & origins

The earliest formation of a Catholic community around Jinmokjeong cannot be dated with certainty. An Archdiocese of Daegu publication explicitly says it “presumes” that Catholics from nearby Tapgol and Sangseonpil fled here after the Sinyu Persecution of 1801 and settled in the area. This should therefore be understood not as a confirmed founding chronology but as a cautious archdiocesan inference concerning the formation of a Catholic village during the era of persecution.

During the Byeongin Persecution, the families of the three martyrs, who had been living at Salti in Ulsan, fled to Beomgul Cave in Sotae-dong, Sannae-myeon, but were arrested. According to archdiocesan materials, they endured questioning and torture for about three months and were executed by military beheading at Jangdae in Ulsan on September 14, 1868.

Their remains were initially buried near Jangdae in Ulsan, but with the help of Park Jo-ye, the wife of Heo In-baek, and Catholics at Jinmokjeong, they were reinterred together on Domaesan behind the Catholic village. This process helped transform Jinmokjeong from a place of refuge into a place of faith where the martyrs’ remains and memory were preserved.

On August 16, 2014, during the visit of Pope Francis to Korea, the three martyrs were beatified. Jinmokjeong’s identity as an archdiocesan martyr shrine honoring them consequently became still clearer, and in 2024 the archdiocese held a walking pilgrimage and a Mass in honor of the martyrs there. Refuge during persecution, martyrdom, the reburial of the remains, beatification, and pilgrimage together form the history of the shrine over time.