Seocheon Martyrdom Site

History & origins

St. Joseph Jo Yun-ho was living with his father, St. Peter Jo Hwa-seo, in Seongji-dong, Soyang, Wanju, when they were arrested during the Byeongin Persecution and taken to the Jeonju provincial government office. According to the Diocese of Jeonju, father and son were repeatedly interrogated and tortured, yet encouraged one another and remained steadfast in their faith. Jo Yun-ho’s grandfather, Jo Andrea, is also identified as a martyr of 1839, placing his death within a family history marked by persecution and continuing witness to the faith.

A legal rule at the time prohibited a father and son from being executed on the same day, at the same place, and by the same sword. After his father was beheaded, Jo Yun-ho remained imprisoned for about ten more days and was then taken to the execution ground outside the western gate of Jeonju at Seocheongyo. Severe beating did not kill him, and he was finally strangled with a rope. He was eighteen years old.

The Diocese of Jeonju itself preserves several possible dates for his martyrdom: December 23, December 18, or December 28. Rather than choosing one date without sufficient basis, this account states only what can be established across the record: he was martyred at the Seocheongyo execution ground in December, about ten days after his father. The present site preserves both this historical uncertainty and the memory of a young saint who remained faithful to the end, linking his witness to the wider history of persecution in Jeonju.