Doanggol Shrine

History & origins

From the early nineteenth century, Catholics who had fled persecution from places such as Gongju and Seocheon settled in Doangol and formed a Catholic village. The Diocese of Daejeon explains that the place name developed from “Dowongok,” a name associated with the many wild peach trees in the mountains. Church statistics from the 1890s record more than fifty Catholics living there, showing that it was once a substantial mountain faith community.

After returning to Korea in 1849, Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop traveled widely to minister to scattered Catholic villages. In October 1850, while at Doangol, he wrote and sent a letter describing the circumstances of the Church in Joseon and his own pastoral work. The Diocese of Daejeon presents this as his first pastoral letter sent after his return. For this reason, Doangol is significant not only as a refuge settlement during persecution but also as a documented site of Father Choe’s early ministry and of the condition of the Korean Catholic Church.

During the Byeongin Persecution in 1866, diocesan records state that Catholics from the village, including Kim Sa-beom, Kim Luka, Kim Paulo, Oh Simon, and Oh John, were martyred in Gongju. Their deaths show that the Doangol community itself was not spared the dangers of the persecution.

In modern times, a memorial and altar honoring Father Choe have been installed, and a walking pilgrimage route from Doangol toward Sapti has been developed so that pilgrims can experience the historical links among former Catholic villages. Rather than preserving the vanished mountain settlement merely as an archaeological trace, these developments have continued its memory as a path of faith recalling both martyrs and a missionary priest.