Yong-su Shrine

History & origins

The event commemorated at Yongsu Shrine begins in 1845. Saint Andrew Kim Tae-geon, after being ordained a priest in Shanghai, sailed toward Korea with his companions aboard the vessel Raphael. Severe storms drove the ship off course, and it reached the waters of Jeju, where the travelers repaired the vessel and obtained necessary provisions before continuing toward the mainland. The landing became an important episode in Church history because it directly connected Jeju with the homeward journey of Korea’s first native priest after his ordination.

The Church in Jeju gradually gave concrete form to this memory through a shrine and memorial facilities. The Catholic Times reports that work on the memorial hall for Kim Tae-geon’s Jeju landing began in 2006 and that the facility has since been operated as a museum, while the Catholic Church directory records September 20, 2008, as the establishment date of Yongsu Shrine. The museum was arranged with exhibits on Kim Tae-geon and on the history of the Church in Jeju, and a historically researched reconstruction of the Raphael became a visible symbol of the landing.

Yongsu subsequently became an official shrine of the Diocese of Jeju, a place of liturgy and pilgrimage centered on the memory of Kim Tae-geon’s return to Korea. The present “Kim Dae-geon Trail” that leads pilgrims to Yongsu reconnects the sea journey of 1845 with a contemporary journey of faith. Through the combination of the historical landing, the creation of memorial facilities, and the diocesan pilgrimage tradition, Yongsu has developed into a shrine that links a local Jeju event with the broader history of the Catholic Church in Korea.