Shinsido Choi Yang-eop Park

Overview

Sinsido Choe Yang-eop Park (the place of stay of Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop on Sinsido) is a pilgrimage site of the Jeonju Diocese established on Sinsido in Gunsan, North Jeolla, where Venerable Deacon Thomas Choe Yang-eop stayed after his ship was wrecked while seeking a return route in 1847. The Jeonju Catholic Center for the Promotion of Martyrs installed a mosaic mural and an altar and created a pilgrimage space.

History

According to the chronology of the life of Father Choe Yang-eop by the Episcopal Special Committee for Beatification and Canonization of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, Choe Yang-eop departed for Joseon on July 28, 1847 aboard a French warship under Captain Lapierre together with Father Maistre (the 4 search for a return route, the 1 search by sea route). The same chronology records that on August 10 he was shipwrecked near Gogunsando (present-day Okdo-myeon, Gunsan City), landed temporarily on the island, arrived in Shanghai on August 26, and then studied at the Jesuit seminary in Xujiahui. Choe Yang-eop was ordained a priest in Shanghai on April 15, 1849.

Press materials from the Jeonju Catholic Center for the Promotion of Martyrs explain that Sinsido Choe Yang-eop Park was created on the site where Deacon Choe Yang-eop stayed for over 30 days after being shipwrecked while exploring a return route aboard a French fleet with Father Maistre in 1847. The same materials report that after his stay on Sinsido, Father Choe returned to the country on his sixth attempt to enter, and until his death in 1861, he ministered for 12 years traveling among Catholic villages throughout the country, receiving praise as the “Witness of Sweat.” There is a difference between the August 10 shipwreck and August 26 arrival in Shanghai recorded in the Bishops’ Conference chronology and the Center’s description of “over 30 days.”

According to the Center’s reports, the site is an agricultural infrastructure facility managed by the Korea Rural Community Corporation, which imposed many constraints on the use of the space, and the Center has continued to develop the pilgrimage space by installing an altar and mosaic murals despite these constraints. On September 27, 2026, in the afternoon at 2 o’clock, priests and the faithful of District 5 of the Jeonju Diocese held a blessing ceremony at Sinsido Choe Yang-eop Park. Parish priests from most parishes in downtown Gunsan attended, Father Matthias Jeong Sik-su of Okbong Parish presided, and the park is furnished with a mosaic depicting the stay of Father Choe Yang-eop’s party, an altar, and other features. Father Jeong emphasized that the month spent on Sinsido must not be seen apart from Father Choe Yang-eop’s whole life.

On May 21, 2026, the “Joint Mass of Pilgrims of Hope to Pray for the Beatification and Canonization of Venerable Father Choe Yang-eop” was celebrated here, presided over by Bishop Basilio Cho Kyu-man of the Wonju Diocese. The Center’s report states that about 1000 faithful from the dioceses of Seoul, Jeonju, Chuncheon, Daejeon and Wonju and members of martyrs’ promotion groups participated in this Mass, while another press report describes it as a Mass to petition for the beatification attended by over 700 pilgrims, so the reported attendance figures differ. This Mass was held after the medical board of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints of the Holy See approved the miracle needed for Father Choe Yang-eop’s beatification in its review on March 26, and after the Wonju Diocese presented the official standard portrait on April 15, the 177 anniversary of his priestly ordination.

Faith Significance and Context for Visiting

Father Benedictus Hwang Chang-yeon, who gave the Mass lecture, said that Father Choe Yang-eop came to Sinsido and longed with tears for the Church in his homeland, in a situation where both his father, Saint Francis Choe Gyeong-hwan, and his mother, Blessed Maria Yi Seong-rye, had been martyred in persecution. In his homily, Bishop Cho Kyu-man noted that in August 1847 Father Choe Yang-eop tried to enter by sea aboard a ship from Shanghai, China, but the ship ran aground and he stayed on Sinsido for a month, and he urged the faithful pilgrimaging to Sinsido to become pilgrims of hope. Father Jacobus Kim Gwang-tae, director of the Jeonju Catholic Center for the Promotion of Martyrs, compared the topography and features of Sinsido in 1847 with its present appearance and introduced Sinsido as a holy land imbued with Father Choe Yang-eop’s ardent faith.

The Center reports that Sinsido is now attracting attention as a nationwide pilgrimage site beyond the Jeonju Diocese.

Related Places and People

• Thomas Choe Yang-eop: the Venerable who stayed on Sinsido in 1847 as a deacon.
• Father Maistre: the priest who explored a return route with Choe Yang-eop aboard a French warship.
• Okbong Parish: the parish to which Father Matthias Jeong Sik-su, who presided at the blessing ceremony for Sinsido Choe Yang-eop Park, belongs.
• Jeonju Catholic Center for the Promotion of Martyrs: the diocesan institution that installed the altar and mosaic murals in the park.

References and Sources

1. Jeonju Catholic Center for the Promotion of Martyrs, ‘The history of 180 years left by “a month’s stay”… Sinsido Choe Yang-eop pilgrimage site announces a new start’ (press report). The background and constraints of the park’s creation, the blessing ceremony on September 27, 2026, and Choe Yang-eop’s later activities were confirmed.
   https://www.martyr.co.kr/press/70
2. Jeonju Catholic Center for the Promotion of Martyrs, ‘Joint Mass of Pilgrims of Hope to Pray for the Beatification and Canonization of Venerable Father Choe Yang-eop Celebrated’ (press report). The joint Mass on May 21, 2026 and the contents of the lecture and homily were confirmed.
   https://www.martyr.co.kr/press/57
3. Episcopal Special Committee for Beatification and Canonization, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, Life of Father Choe Yang-eop. The departure on July 28, 1847, the shipwreck on August 10, the arrival in Shanghai on August 26, and the priestly ordination in 1849 were confirmed.
   https://cbck.or.kr/koreanmartyrs/CHOE-Yang-eop/Life