About this place
Jinsan Shrine is a martyr shrine of the Catholic Diocese of Daejeon, commemorating the Jinsan Incident of 1791 and the two martyrs associated with it, Blesseds Paul Yun Ji-chung and James Kwon Sang-yeon. The Jinsan Incident was an early episode in which the Church in Joseon came into direct conflict with state authority over the question of ancestral rites. The shrine therefore has a distinctive identity as a place of pilgrimage where visitors remember the faith choices of the two Blesseds and reflect on the wider history of persecution in the Catholic Church in Korea.
Within the shrine, historical materials on the Jinsan Incident, its principal figures, and the introduction of Catholicism, together with the church building itself, help visitors understand the faith of that period and the traces of the local Catholic community. Jinsan is thus more than a memorial to individual martyrs: it is one of the Diocese of Daejeon's important places of faith and history, inviting reflection on how Catholic belief took root in late Joseon and endured through persecution.
History & origins
In the late eighteenth century, as Catholic faith spread in Joseon, Paul Yun Ji-chung and James Kwon Sang-yeon of Jinsan also embraced the teaching. After Bishop Alexandre de Gouvea of Beijing instructed Korean Catholics in 1790 not to perform ancestral rites, the two removed ancestral tablets from their homes and, the following year, conducted the funeral of Yun Ji-chung's mother in a manner they believed consistent with Catholic faith. The matter reached the royal court. They were arrested and pressured to apostatize, but refused and were executed in Jeonju in 1791. This episode became known as the Jinsan Incident, or the Sinhae Persecution.
During the continuing persecutions, the Catholic community in Jinsan could not function openly. After the Korea-France Treaty of 1886 improved the conditions for missionary activity, the Gasa-beol mission station was established in Jibang-ri, Jinsan, allowing local Catholics to gather again. In 1927, lay leader Lee Ui-gyu of the Gasa-beol mission station donated land, the mission station moved to the present shrine site, and a church was built.
On 16 August 2014, during Pope Francis's visit to Korea, Paul Yun Ji-chung and James Kwon Sang-yeon were beatified together with their fellow martyrs, drawing renewed attention to the historical significance of Jinsan. The former mission station was subsequently elevated as Jinsan Shrine, preserving both the memory of the events of 1791 and the continuity of the local Catholic community that followed.
Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia
Jinsan Shrine: history and architecture
Read about the place's history, architecture, people, and events in the Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia.
Encyclopedia articles are currently available in Korean.
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- 한국천주교주교회의 온라인 주소록
Diocese
Daejeon Diocese (Diocese of Daejeon)
Official website: http://www.djcatholic.or.kr
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