Jinmokjeong

Overview

The Jinmokjeong Shrine is a shrine of the Archdiocese of Daegu located halfway up Domaesan in the Danseoksan range at Naeilli, Sannae-myeon, Gyeongju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do. It is the place with the Beomgul cave where Blessed Peter Yi Yang-deung, Blessed Luke Kim Jong-ryun and Blessed James Heo In-baek, martyred at Ulsan Jangdae during the Byeongin Persecution, lived in hiding, and the tomb where their remains were buried after martyrdom (now a cenotaph), and it is the site of a Catholic village with the Chamnamu-dyeongi (Jinmok) Catholic mission chapel.

History

[Place name and formation of the Catholic village] The original place name of Jinmokjeong was ‘Chamnamu-dyeongi,’ meaning a valley with many oak trees, and it was standardized as Jinmokjeong (眞木亭) when the policy of writing place names in Chinese characters was implemented in 1894 during the Gabo Reform. The Jinmokjeong mission chapel homepage states that it is a small village belonging to Naeil 2-ri, Sannae-myeon, Gyeongju-si, and that before 1906 it belonged to Nammyeon-seo of Gyeongju-bu. The homepage explains that it cannot be stated with certainty when the Catholic village was established, but even before the Gyeongsin Persecution (1860) the faithful lived scattered in the mountainous area of Eonyang-hyeon and Nammyeon-seo of Gyeongju-bu, centered on the Ganwol mission chapel. Good News and the shrine homepage introduce Jinmokjeong as one of several Catholic villages formed in the Eoui-hyeon area after the Gihae Persecution (1839).

[Pastoral visits by priests] According to the homepage, Father Choi Yang-eop visited this area for pastoral care at the time of the Gyeongsin Persecution but encountered persecution and took refuge in Jukrimgul Cave. Bishop Antoine Daveluy, who then took pastoral responsibility, wrote in a letter sent to his family in October 1862 that he stayed for about twenty days in a place presumed to be Chamnamu-dyeongi, giving the sacraments and teaching catechism to the faithful in the mountains of Gyeongju, Eonyang and Miryang. Based on this record, the homepage holds that the mission chapel and the Catholic village were established immediately after the Gyeongsin Persecution, and that during persecutions it served as a refuge and as a point of contact for the faithful in the mountainous area of southern Gyeongsang-do. Bishop Daveluy visited this place every year until the spring of 1864, handed pastoral care over to Father Ridel that autumn, and Father Ridel visited this area in 1865.

[Pastoral care after the Byeongin Persecution] Pastoral visits by priests were cut off by the Byeongin Persecution in 1866 and continued until Father Robert Kim Bo-rok visited in 1883. Father Kim Bo-rok visited this place every year from 1883 until the establishment of the Busan Parish in 1890. Afterwards priests of the Daegu Parish and the Busan Parish visited in consultation, but in 1897–1898 Father Laurentius Kang Seong-sam of Myeongnye Church took charge, although it became difficult because of worsening health. The homepage states that when Bishop Mutel made a pastoral visit in 1894, Chairman John Park welcomed him (the long-settled residents living in Jinmokjeong were the Park family). In October 1899, Fathers Kim Bo-rok, Kim Seong-hak, Ahn Se-hwa (Demange) and Emile Taquet divided pastoral care and designated 17 mission chapels in southeastern Gyeongsang-do as belonging to the Busan Parish, and the Jinmokjeong mission chapel came to be overseen by Father Demange of the Busan Parish.

[Changes in mission chapel affiliation] According to the homepage, the Jinmokjeong mission chapel became affiliated with Gyeongju Church (now Seongdong Church) when Gyeongju Church was established in 1926, and later passed through Seonggeon Church and Geoncheon Church and is now a mission chapel belonging to Sannae Church. By family, Kim Jong-un, a collateral relative of Luke Kim Jong-ryun, was arrested in Chungcheong-do and martyred while fleeing the Byeongin Persecution, and his wife led the family to settle in Jinmokjeong, and from that family came Father Augustinus Kim Seung-yeon. The family of Aloysius Kim Mun-hak moved to Jinmokjeong around 1898 via Ujung-gol and Sotae-dong from Yangbuk, Gyeongju, during the Byeongin Persecution, and in the early 1930s the family of Lee Sang-u, who had lived in the Guryong mission chapel, moved here, and from that family came Father Lee Im-chun, it is said.

[Hiding and arrest of the three martyrs] According to the Catholic Newspaper (2011), James Heo In-baek was of the Gimhae Heo clan, born in Gimhae in 1821, and when the Byeongin Persecution broke out he was imprisoned in the Gimhae government office and then released, after which he abandoned his house and fields, took refuge in ‘Ganal’ in Eonyang, and met Chairman Peter Yi Yang-deung and Luke Kim Jong-ryun in the faithful village of Daejae in the deeper mountains, acting together with them until martyrdom. Yi Yang-deung was born in Seoul and had served for several years as chairman of the Daejae mission chapel, helping livelihoods by selling honey and evangelizing, and Kim Jong-ryun seems to have entered the faith in Gongju, Chungcheong-do, and to have come down near Ulsan via Meongemok in Sangju, it is said. The three families used a stone cave in Dansugol, Sotae-dong, Sannae-myeon, Gyeongju, as a refuge, the wives brought rice from the village, and the three men made and sold wooden vessels. Good News writes that Yi Yang-deung was chairman of the Jukryeong Catholic village in Ulsan, that this place was relatively safe, but after 2 years, in 1868, constables raided and dragged the three men to the Gyeongju military camp.

[Martyrdom] The Catholic Newspaper writes that it was the time when a new order to arrest Catholics had been issued after a German ship anchored off Deoksan, Chungcheong-do, in May 1868 and dug up the tomb of Namyeon-gun. The three men were forced to apostatize in the Gyeongju government office, beaten with clubs and imprisoned for about two months, then transferred to Ulsan in late July, interrogated by the military commander, and executed at the Ulsan Jangdae execution ground on lunar July 28 (August 14 by the solar calendar), it is said. Good News records the martyrdom date as September 14, 1868 (lunar July 28), so the solar-calendar date differs between the two sources, and the Jinmokjeong homepage writes that they were martyred by military beheading during the Byeongin Persecution. The Catholic Newspaper says that Heo In-baek’s wife dug a pit below the riverbank near the execution ground that night and buried the bodies of the three martyrs (Good News gives this wife’s name as Jo-ye Park).

[Transfer of the remains] According to Good News, after the persecution ended, in 1907 the remains were exhumed and buried on Domaesan Mountain behind Jinmokjeong, and the Catholic Newspaper writes that at that time there was a large mission chapel in Jinmokjeong so the tomb could be cared for. The remains were moved in late May 1932 to the church cemetery in Gamcheon-ri, Wolbae-dong (the Catholic Newspaper writes that they were moved to Gyesan-dong Church on May 29 and then laid in the Gamcheon-ri cemetery the following day), were enshrined in a stone casket in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary on the cemetery hill in October 1962, and then moved and buried within the grounds of the Blessed Martyrs Church in Sincheon 3-dong, Daegu, in October 1973 (the Catholic Newspaper records this as October 1974). The Catholic Newspaper reports that after the transfer the Jinmokjeong tomb was neglected until Gyeongju Parish built a mound in 1974 and erected a small tombstone inscribed with the names of the three martyrs, and that the faithful of the Jinmok mission chapel mowed the grass every lunar July. The three martyrs were beatified by Pope Francis in Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on August 16, 2014.

[Development as a shrine] According to Good News, the Archdiocese of Daegu decided to create a walking pilgrimage route from Sannae Parish in Gyeongju to Jinmokjeong, to build a retreat house for individuals and families near the Jinmok mission chapel and cemetery, and to build a martyrs’ memorial church above the cemetery, holding a groundbreaking ceremony in late May 2014, and after construction in 3, held the blessing ceremony for the Jinmokjeong Martyrs’ Memorial Church and Haneulwon (charnel house) in May 2017.

Architecture and Space

Good News explains that the Jinmokjeong Shrine has the Martyrs’ Memorial Church and Haneulwon (charnel house), and the old Jinmok mission chapel, and that climbing about 700 m along a mountain path past the mission chapel leads to the tomb where the three martyrs had been buried until 1932. The Martyrs’ Memorial Church was built above the old tomb.

Related Places and People

• James Heo In-baek, Peter Yi Yang-deung and Luke Kim Jong-ryun: the three Blesseds martyred at Ulsan Jangdae during the Byeongin Persecution, beatified on August 16, 2014 (Good News).
• Ulsan Jangdae (Ulsan Byeongyeong Martyrs’ Shrine): the place where the three martyrs were executed (Jinmokjeong homepage).
• Daegu Blessed Martyrs Church: the place where the remains of the three martyrs are now enshrined (Good News).
• Beomgul Cave and Sotaegol Retreat House: the Beomgul Cave where the three martyrs lived in hiding is on Danseoksan (Dansugol, Sotae-ri) about 3.6 km from the Jinmok mission chapel, and the Way of the Cross begins at the Sotaegol Retreat House (Good News).

References and Sources

1. Catholic Good News Shrines and Historic Sites, “Jinmokjeong” (Daegu Archdiocese). Lives of the three Blesseds, progress of the transfer of the remains (1907·1932·1962·1973), groundbreaking in 2014 and blessing in 2017, location of Beomgul Cave.
   https://m.catholic.or.kr/web/holyplace/?seq=2828
2. Jinmokjeong Shrine homepage, “Brief Introduction”. Catholic village after the Gihae Persecution, Bishop Daveluy’s stay in 1862 presumed, the three Blesseds and Beomgul Cave.
   http://jinmokjeong.or.kr/p101
3. Jinmokjeong Shrine homepage, “Jinmokjeong and the Jinmok Mission Chapel”. Origin of the place name, changes in pastoral visits, changes in mission chapel affiliation, faithful families.
   http://jinmokjeong.or.kr/p105
4. Catholic Newspaper, “The hiding place of the three Ulsan martyrs, Jinmokjeong – examining its origin and martyrdom history” (2011). Brief lives of the three martyrs, arrest and martyrdom, transfer and the 1974 tombstone.
   https://www.catholictimes.org/article/201105270128567