Daehungbongsusan Martyrs' Shrine

History & origins

The central historical event remembered at Daeheung Bongsusan Martyrs' Shrine is the Sinyu Persecution of 1801. Peter Kim Jeong-deuk, a native of Daeheung, learned the Catholic faith from his relative Andrew Kim Gwang-ok. When persecution broke out, the two went into hiding together but were eventually arrested. After interrogation and imprisonment in several jurisdictions and a death sentence in the capital, they were sent back toward their respective home districts for execution. The tradition that they parted at a crossroads promising to meet again in heaven became a defining symbol of the pair remembered as the “faithful brothers in martyrdom.”

Peter Kim Jeong-deuk was martyred in Daeheung on 25 August 1801, while Andrew Kim Gwang-ok was executed in Yesan on the same day. Diocesan and Catholic shrine sources also preserve the names of other martyrs associated with the old Daeheung district. The site of the former Daeheung government office and prison retains the memory of the administrative and judicial setting in which Catholics were interrogated and punished, providing an important historical basis for the later shrine.

Modern development of the shrine was discussed more actively after the beatification of 124 Korean martyrs in 2014. The Diocese of Daejeon sought a new shrine that would preserve the faith of the martyrs while also embodying the concern for creation expressed in Laudato Si'. In August 2015, the area below Bongsusan in Daeheung was selected because traces of the old prison site and a well-preserved natural environment remained together. The shrine, reconstructed prison complex, and Stations of the Cross were subsequently prepared, and a blessing of the shrine took place in May 2019.

In this way, Daeheung has been reinterpreted not merely as a place of past execution but as a contemporary pilgrimage site where the faith of the martyrs, reconciliation, and ecological conversion can be contemplated together. The development of Daeheung Bongsusan Martyrs' Shrine illustrates the diocese's effort to connect historical martyrdom with present Christian responsibility for faith and creation.