Shinsido Choi Yang-eop Park

History & origins

In 1847 Thomas Choe Yang-eop, then a deacon, attempted to enter Korea together with French missionaries. With the assistance of a French naval vessel, they approached Korea by the West Sea, but around August 10 their ship ran aground in the Gogunsan area. Choe and his companions stayed on Shinsido for about a month and made contact with nearby Catholics, but they were ultimately unable to accomplish their entry and had to return to Shanghai.

This failure was one of several attempts Choe made to return to Korea before his priestly ministry. He was ordained a priest in 1849 and later entered Korea, becoming the second Korean Catholic priest. The stay on Shinsido did not itself end in a successful entry, yet it came to be remembered as a vivid episode showing his determination to return for the sake of the Korean Church and the isolation experienced by Catholic communities under persecution.

The Diocese of Jeonju records that the location of the Shinsido stay was examined through academic work in 2013 and that a memorial marker was installed there; in 2014, the first Mass was celebrated at the marked site. It subsequently developed into a pilgrimage place where Catholics pray for Choe Yang-eop’s beatification and canonization and remember his missionary spirit. Diocesan commemorative Masses continue to connect the brief stay of 1847 with present-day pilgrimage memory.