Sinri Catholic Shrine

History & origins

Construction of the present memorial church at Sinri Shrine began in April 2004. As the shrine developed a clearer need for a dedicated church in which its history and martyrs could be commemorated, work continued for about two years. The building was designed by Professor Kim Jung-shin, Stefano, of Dankook University. Its design was intended to allow the broad landscape surrounding Sinri to remain perceptible from inside, linking pilgrimage and liturgy with the natural setting of the shrine.

On May 6, 2006, Bishop Lazarus You Heung-sik of Daejeon presided over the blessing of the “Memorial Church of Saint Antoine Daveluy and Saint Thomas Son Ja-seon.” The building included a liturgical space of about 240 seats as well as an area intended to commemorate relics and personal objects associated with Daveluy, Son Ja-seon, and the other saints connected with Sinri. From that point the church became the principal liturgical space for pilgrimage at the shrine.

The pastoral structure of the site became more defined after the church was built. According to the Directory of the Catholic Church in Korea, Sinri Shrine Parish was established on January 14, 2009, creating a permanent parish community within the same shrine complex. The memorial church therefore came to function not only as an occasional facility for pilgrims but as a church where the commemoration of the martyrs and the regular Mass life of a local Catholic community meet.

Additional spaces of remembrance and prayer, including chapels for the five saints and the Martyrdom Art Museum, were later incorporated into the shrine. The church remains the liturgical center among these facilities, carrying the memory of nineteenth-century persecution and martyrdom into twenty-first-century Mass and pilgrimage. Its history shows how the development of Sinri Shrine moved beyond the construction of monuments toward a living community of worship.