Baenaedri Shrine

History & origins

Baenadri was one of the early Catholic villages of the Naepo region, where believers used the geography near the mouth of the Sapgyocheon River to live together in relative seclusion. The Diocese of Daejeon explains that the name arose because high tide could surround the village with water like an island, requiring travel by boat. After Catholicism spread through Naepo, communities formed around Sapgyo and Deoksan, and this landscape offered some protection for believers who needed to practice their faith discreetly during persecution.

The effects of persecution in Gyeongsang Province in 1816 reached Baenadri the following year. In October 1817, about twenty to thirty Catholics were arrested there. The Diocese of Daejeon records that several—including Min Cheomji Peter, his sister-in-law Anna, Song Cheomji Joseph, Son Yeon-uk Joseph, and Min Sukgan—remained steadfast and died in prison. Son Yeon-uk’s father, Son Yeo-sim, endured a long imprisonment at Haemi and was martyred in 1827.

The martyr most closely associated with the surrounding area is Blessed Martin In Eon-min. Born in 1737 in Jurae, Deoksan, in the area of present-day Yongdong-ri, Sapgyo-eup, he encountered the Catholic faith through Alexius Hwang Sa-yeong and was baptized by Father James Zhou Wen-mo. He was arrested in 1797, transferred through Gongju and Cheongju to Haemi, and martyred on January 9, 1800. Pope Francis beatified him on August 16, 2014.

The modern shrine is also connected with the history of the former Yongmeori Mission Station. After the mission station was closed in 1987, Baenadri Shrine was established on the site, and from 1991 development began to commemorate the spirit of martyrs from the Sapgyo area. In this way the site of a vanished Catholic village was transformed into a pilgrimage place where the lives of local martyrs are remembered in prayer rather than remaining only as a trace of a lost community.