Surichigol Shrine

History & origins

Surichigol took shape as a Catholic village where believers sought refuge during times of persecution. After Father Andrew Kim Taegon entered Korea in 1845 with Bishop Joseph Ferréol and Father Antoine Daveluy, Kim's arrest the following year brought the Byeongo Persecution. Ferréol and Daveluy then withdrew to Surichigol. The mountain village thus became a refuge where missionaries could be protected and the Catholic community could continue its life of faith.

On November 2, 1846, the two missionaries organized an association devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Surichigol, asking the intercession of the Virgin Mary so that the Church in Korea might be freed from persecution and practice the faith in freedom. It began with only a few believers gathered in a small hut, but they wrote to the Basilica of Our Lady of Victories in Paris asking to be enrolled in the association there. In this way the small Korean community became connected with a broader Catholic movement of prayer.

The faithful gathered at Surichigol on Sundays to pray for peace for the Korean Church and the conversion of sinners. This tradition led the site to be remembered as an important birthplace of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Korean Church. Today the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Mirinae are responsible for the site, continuing the prayer and Marian tradition of the old Catholic village through religious life and pilgrimage ministry. The history of Surichigol is therefore the story of a refuge under persecution gradually becoming a place of Marian prayer offered for the wider Church.