Kimje Shrine

History & origins

Han Jeong-heum Stanislaus was born in Gimje in 1756. Although he belonged to the yangban class, his family was not wealthy. While earning his living as a teacher for the children in the household of Yu Hang-geum Augustine, he encountered and accepted the Catholic faith. He studied the teachings of the Church and continued a life of faith in connection with local Catholics.

When the Sinyu Persecution began in 1801, Han was arrested as a Catholic associated with Yu Hang-geum. After interrogation and punishment in Jeonju, he was sent to Seoul for trial. Once sentenced to death, he was returned to his native Gimje, where he was beheaded on August 26, 1801, at the age of forty-five. The Korean Catholic Bishops’ Conference records Gimje as his place of martyrdom.

The area of the former Gimje government office and execution ground changed as the city developed, but the local Church preserved the memory of Han’s martyrdom and established a memorial place near Yochon Parish. In 2023 the Diocese of Jeonju renewed and blessed Gimje Martyrs’ Shrine as a place of martyr commemoration, allowing the memory attached to the historic execution ground to continue in present-day liturgy and pilgrimage. The shrine shows how the martyrdom of one believer became a lasting part of the Church’s local historical memory.

Han Jeong-heum’s journey of faith also shows how the early Catholic histories of Jeonju and Gimje were connected. He encountered Catholicism in the household of Yu Hang-geum, was interrogated in Jeonju during the persecution, and was finally returned to Gimje to be martyred. Gimje Martyrs’ Shrine therefore preserves more than the memory of one person: it presents a connected history of evangelization through Catholic households, persecution by local government, and martyrdom in one’s native region.