Jemuljin Martyrs' Shrine

History & origins

Jemuljindu was an important ferry landing and port area in late Joseon. In 1845, St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon, then a deacon, had entered Korea and assessed the situation of the Church before leaving from a nearby port aboard the vessel Raphael with Catholic companions for Shanghai, where he was to receive priestly ordination. The episode shows that the Jemuljindu area formed part of the maritime route linking the persecuted Church in Joseon with the Church abroad.

During the continuing Byeongin Persecution, Jemuljindu became a place of public execution. According to the shrine’s materials and a report in The Catholic Times, four Catholics were executed here in 1868 and six more in 1871, for a total of ten. Among them were relatives of Peter Park Sun-jip, who preserved testimony about the martyrs, and descendants of Peter Yi Seung-hun, the first baptized Korean Catholic. Their execution at a busy ferry landing remains a stark witness to the violence of the persecution.

After the period of persecution, the port became the setting for another important moment in Korean Catholic history. In 1888, four Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres entered Joseon through this port for missionary service, an event remembered as an important beginning for women’s religious life in Korea. The fact that a place of martyrdom later also became a gateway for mission and religious life gives Jemuljindu a historical significance extending beyond a single period.

For a long time, the precise martyrdom site was not widely identified. The location was established in 2010, and the Jemuljindu Martyrs Memorial Chapel was dedicated in 2014. The present shrine continues on this recovered historical ground, honoring the ten martyrs and inviting pilgrims to contemplate together the memories of persecution and mission.