Jinsan Shrine

Overview

Jinsan Shrine is a shrine of the Diocese of Daejeon in Jibang-ri, Jinsan-myeon, Geumsan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, where Yun Jichung Paul and Kwon Sang-yeon James, the first beheaded martyrs of the Korean Catholic Church, were born and raised, and where the ‘Jinsan Incident’ (Sinhae Persecution), in which they burned ancestral tablets and refused ancestral rites in 1791, took place. The old church built in 1927 is a National Registered Cultural Heritage, and a new memorial church was dedicated in 2023.

History

〔Catholicism in Jinsan and Yun Jichung and Kwon Sang-yeon〕 The Digital Geumsan Culture Encyclopedia writes that Jinsan was the first place in the Geumsan region to receive Catholicism, and that Yun Jichung Paul, born in Janggu-dong, Jinsan, served as an apostle and spread it to the surrounding areas. Yun Jichung passed the jinsa examination at 25 years old in 1783, heard about Catholicism at the house of his elder second cousin Jeong Yak-jeon in about 1784, borrowed Cheonjusilui and Chilgeuk, studied them thoroughly for 3 years, and was baptized with the name Paul by Yi Seung-hun in 1787. He spread the Gospel to his family and neighbors, including his mother Madam Kwon, his younger brother Yun Jihon Francis, who entered the Church in 1789, and his maternal cousin Kwon Sang-yeon James, and Choe Yeo-gyeom Matthias of Mujang, Jeolla-do, and Han Deok-un Thomas of Hongju learned from him and entered the Church. Kwon Sang-yeon was baptized by Yu Hang-geom Augustine, the ‘Apostle of Honam,’ in 1787.

〔The Jinsan Incident (1791)〕 According to Good News, in lunar May 1791, when his mother died, Yun Jichung held her funeral according to Catholic rites instead of Confucian ancestral rites, in keeping with his mother’s dying wish: ‘do nothing contrary to the teachings of the Church.’ Regarded as unfilial by the society of the time, Yun Jichung and Kwon Sang-yeon were arrested on the accusation of relatives and neighbors and beheaded outside the South Gate of Jeonju, near the present Jeondong church, on December 8 (lunar November 13) of that year. The Culture Encyclopedia writes that Yun Jichung, after consulting his maternal cousin Kwon Sang-yeon, did not enshrine an ancestral tablet and did not prepare food offerings in accordance with his mother’s will, and that after staying in Gwangju to avoid danger, he heard the magistrate’s arrest order and surrendered himself on lunar October 26. Since Jinsan then belonged to Jeolla-do, the two were transported to Jeonju, and Left State Councilor Chae Je-gong proposed to King Jeongjo beheading and five days of public exposure of the head, and although Jeongjo later regretted it and sent a special envoy to stay the execution, it had already been carried out. At the time of martyrdom Yun Jichung was 33 years old and Kwon Sang-yeon was 41 years old, the first case of martyrdom under a formal sentence since the founding of the Joseon Catholic Church.

〔Changes in the Jinsan area and its martyrs〕 The Culture Encyclopedia writes that, as a result of this incident, Jinsan was demoted from county to prefecture for 5 years from 1791, Jinsan County Magistrate Sin Sa-won was exiled, and Jinsan was restored to county status in 1796 before being merged into Geumsan-gun during the Japanese colonial period to become the present Jinsan-myeon. The martyrs from Jinsan include, besides Yun Jichung and Kwon Sang-yeon of the 1791 Sinhae Persecution, Yun Jihon Francis and 6 others of the 1801 Sinyu Persecution, O Jong-rye James and 2 others of the 1839 Gihae Persecution, and Kim Yeong-o Aosding and 20 others of the 1866 Byeongin Persecution. Good News writes that Kim Yeong-sam from Jibang-ri was martyred in 1866, his younger brother Kim Sado John in 1877, and Kim Chun-sam Sado John in 1878 (the Culture Encyclopedia writes that the three, Kim Yeong-o, Kim Yeong-sam, and Kim Chun-sam, were from Gasaebeol). At the beatification ceremony in Gwanghwamun Square on August 16, 2014, Yun Jichung Paul and 123 companion martyrs were raised to the Blessed.

〔The Gasaebeol Catholic village and the Jibang-ri Catholic mission chapel〕 The Digital Geumsan Culture Encyclopedia (church entry) writes that Gasaebeol in Jibang-ri was settled by believers before the Byeongin Persecution and drew still more faithful fleeing persecution afterward, and that when Father Jos visited in 1885, there were 42 believers. The family of Yi Ye-gyu, the first Catholic mission chapel chair, settled after the 1886 Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Joseon and the United States for the protection of castaways, and Yi Ye-gyu’s elder brother Yi Ui-gyu reclaimed barren land, grew wealthy, and greatly influenced the spread of Catholicism in the Geumsan area. The Yi family served as chairs for generations. In the 1920s, believers centered on the Yi Ui-gyu family campaigned to expand the Catholic mission chapel and to be elevated to a parish, Yi Ui-gyu donated the land of the present Jibang-ri mission chapel and built a new Catholic mission chapel building in 1927, and also donated the mountain behind Gasaebeol as resources for parish operation (the church entry records the founding of the Jibang-ri mission chapel in 1922). On May 25, 1929, it was elevated to Jibang-ri Parish and Father Yi Seong-man (Ignatius) became its first pastor, but with the shortage of priests following the withdrawal of foreign missionaries and financial difficulties, the priest was transferred to Doejae Parish, its mother parish, on May 10, 1931, and it returned to a Catholic mission chapel of Doejae Parish. Good News writes that the Jibang-ri Catholic mission chapel was transferred from Jeollabuk-do to Chungcheongnam-do in an administrative reorganization in 1963 and from the Diocese of Jeonju to the Diocese of Daejeon in 1980.

〔Elevation to shrine church and cultural heritage designation〕 The Diocese of Daejeon, unable to know the exact place where the first martyrdom occurred, chose the Jibang-ri mission chapel, successor to the Gasaebeol Catholic village that had existed since before the Byeongin Persecution, as the memorial site (Culture Encyclopedia). In December 2008, it separated it from Geumsan Parish, elevated it to Jinsan Shrine church, and appointed Father Yun In-gyu Lawrence as its first pastor (Good News records the elevation as in 2009). The old church was designated as National Registered Cultural Property No. 682 on May 29, 2017, and with the designation number removed by public notice of the Cultural Heritage Administration on November 19, 2021, it became a National Registered Cultural Heritage.

〔Discovery of the martyrs’ remains and the new church (2021~2023)〕 According to the Digital Geumsan Culture Encyclopedia, on March 11, 2021, in the course of developing the Baubaegi area of Chonami Shrine in Wanju as a sacred precinct, graves and remains presumed to be those of Yun Jichung, Kwon Sang-yeon, and Yun Jihon were discovered, and white porcelain bowl-shaped grave markers inscribed with each person’s personal details were also excavated from the graves, with the records matching the three men’s personal details. After 6 months of archaeological and anatomical investigation, the Diocese of Jeonju proclaimed a decree on the authenticity of the sacred remains on September 1, 2021. A new church building was built in March 2023, and at the dedication of the new church on May 27, 2023, the bones of the three martyrs, found after 232 years, were enshrined in the memorial sanctuary. At the same time the Diocese of Daejeon also opened a new pilgrimage route, for which the Seo-gu District Office of Daejeon Metropolitan City and Geumsan-gun signed a business agreement and improved 6.3km of forest trail from Jangtaesan Natural Recreation Forest to Jinsan Shrine.

Architecture and Space

The Digital Geumsan Culture Encyclopedia writes that the old church is a small wooden building erected by French missionary Father Bak Parteune in 1927, in an eclectic Korean-style wooden structure (2 tall columns and 5-ryang frame), and that 2 rows of interior tall columns divide the central nave from the side aisles on either side to form a 3-ryang-style space. The building is rectangular with a gable roof, and the sanctuary area (wall altar, railing, and floor), the roof structure, and the interior and exterior columns retain their original form. The method of reinforcing the lower part of the outer walls with cement bricks in the early 1960s was a distinctive technique for its time, and the 2 floor used as a choir loft and the wooden bell tower were demolished for safety reasons, with the bell tower repaired again in cement-brick masonry in 2004. The new memorial sanctuary follows the layout of the Baubaegi martyrs’ graves: the church was built on the site of Yun Jichung’s grave on the left, the exhibition hall on the site of Kwon Sang-yeon’s grave on the right, and the lecture building below the exhibition hall on the site of Yun Jihon’s grave, with a memorial statue commemorating the three erected between the church and the exhibition hall.

Related Places and Figures

• Jinsan History and Culture Center: located 100m behind the Jinsan Shrine church, it is divided into the Jinsan Incident Hall and the Jinsan Culture Hall, where visitors can see the Jinsan Incident and the history and culture of Jinsan-myeon (Digital Geumsan Culture Encyclopedia).
• Makhyeon-ri (Mageunbaemi): about 2km from Jinsan Shrine toward Daejeon, it is presumed to be where Yun Jichung, Kwon Sang-yeon, and the martyrs of the Jinsan area were buried (Digital Geumsan Culture Encyclopedia).
• Jinbatdeul Catholic village: in Duji-ri, about 1km from Jinsan Shrine toward Mount Daedun, it is a place mentioned in the letters of Father Choe Yang-eop (Digital Geumsan Culture Encyclopedia).
• Jeondong church (Jeonju): built in May 1889 on the first martyrdom site where Yun Jichung and Kwon Sang-yeon were beheaded (Digital Geumsan Culture Encyclopedia).
• Chonami Shrine Baubaegi: the place where the remains of the three martyrs were discovered in 2021, whose grave layout the new memorial sanctuary follows (Digital Geumsan Culture Encyclopedia).

References and Sources

1. Good News Catholic Shrines and Historic Sites, “Jinsan Shrine” (Diocese of Daejeon). The Jinsan Incident and changes to the Jibang-ri Catholic mission chapel, martyrs after the Byeongin Persecution, and elevation to shrine church in 2009.
   https://m.catholic.or.kr/web/holyplace/?seq=4174
2. Digital Geumsan Culture Encyclopedia, “Jinsan Shrine Church of Catholicism”. Transition from the Gasaebeol Catholic village to Jibang-ri Parish and shrine church, cultural heritage registration, church construction in 1927, and discovery of remains and the new church in 2021~2023.
   https://geumsan.grandculture.net/geumsan/toc/GC09200563
3. Digital Geumsan Culture Encyclopedia, “Unchanged Breath of Early Christianity, Geumsan Pilgrimage Sites”. The entry of Yun Jichung and Kwon Sang-yeon into the Church and the course of the Jinsan Incident, martyrs of the Jinsan area, and historic sites and pilgrimage routes around the shrine.
   http://geumsan.grandculture.net/geumsan/toc/GC09200005