About this place
The Gokseong Catholic Church Prison Site is the ground on which the present Gokseong Catholic Church stands and is officially commemorated by the Archdiocese of Gwangju as a historic site of persecution and martyrdom. According to the archdiocese, Catholic communities began forming in the Gokseong area after believers fleeing the Eulhae Persecution of 1815 settled in places such as Deoksil and Mireukgol, sustaining both their livelihoods and their faith through pottery making.
In February 1827 an incident involving Han Baek-gyeom, the son of the martyr Thomas Han Deok-un, led to Catholics in the Gokseong area being denounced and arrested. The local government office converted its guesthouse into a temporary prison where Catholics were confined and interrogated, and the case became one of the starting points of the Jeonghae Persecution as repression spread through other parts of Jeolla. The Korean name "okteo," meaning prison site, refers to this memory.
In 1957 Archbishop Harold Henry decided to establish a parish on this ground in order to preserve the memory of the persecution, and Gokseong Catholic Church was built there in 1958. The site today is therefore not primarily a separate surviving prison structure, but a church-historical place that overlaps with the active parish church, where visitors can remember the Jeonghae Persecution and the faith of earlier local Catholics within the life of the present community.
History & origins
The Catholic community in the Gokseong area took shape when believers fleeing the Eulhae Persecution of 1815 settled in places including Deoksil and Mireukgol. The Archdiocese of Gwangju records that they supported themselves by making pottery while preserving their communal faith.
In February 1827 an incident involving Han Baek-gyeom led to Catholics in the Gokseong area being denounced and arrested. The local government office converted its guesthouse into a temporary prison where Catholics were confined and interrogated. The repression became one of the starting points of the Jeonghae Persecution as it spread through other parts of Jeolla. The present name “Gokseong Catholic Church Prison Site” refers to the memory of that temporary prison.
In 1957 Archbishop Harold Henry decided to establish a parish on the site in order to preserve the memory of the persecution, and Gokseong Catholic Church was built there in 1958. The history of the site therefore joins a nineteenth-century place of persecution with the establishment of a twentieth-century parish on the same ground.
Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia
Gokseong Catholic Church Okteo: 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
Gwangju Archdiocese (Archdiocese of Gwangju)
Official website: https://www.gjcatholic.or.kr/
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