Blessed Yoon Bong-Mun Shrine

Overview

The Blessed Joseph Yun Bong-mun Shrine (Jisepo Shrine) is a shrine of the Diocese of Masan located in Jisepo-ri, Irun-myeon, Geoje City, South Gyeongsang Province, where the tomb of Blessed Joseph Yun Bong-mun, the ‘Apostle of Geoje,’ who was martyred by hanging in Jinju prison in 1888, is enshrined. On April 20, 2013, the Diocese of Masan transferred the martyr’s remains from the mountains of Okpo to this place and developed it as a shrine equipped with the Way of the Cross and a monument honoring the martyr.

History

According to Good News Catholic Information, the seed of the Gospel first fell on Geoje Island just before the Byeongin Persecution, when Father Ridel and Blessed Thaddeus Gu Han-seon, who was his altar server, are known to have visited for evangelization. Later, during the Byeongin Persecution, around 1868, Stanislaus Yun Sau, whose hometown was Jichon-ri, Gigye-myeon, Yeongil-gun, North Gyeongsang Province, entered Geoje Island. Yun Sau’s family had been hiding in Daecheong, Yangsan (present-day Gijang-myeon, Busan) and, when the Byeongin Persecution broke out, settled on Geoje Island with the intention of fleeing to Tsushima, where religious life was relatively free. Passing through Beodeunae, Bakgae, Deokgae and other places, Yun Sau settled in Jinmokjeong (present-day Okpo2-dong, Geoje City) and evangelized actively; while earning a living by day labor and peddling brushes and ink and secretly keeping the faith, he brought John Jin Jin-bu, a village head of Okpo, into the Church. John Jin Jin-bu, who had become a believer, took Joseph Yun Bong-mun, Yun Sau’s second son, as his son-in-law.

Sources differ on the birth year of Joseph Yun Bong-mun. Good News records that he was born around 1852 near Gyeongju as the second son of Yun Sau and Magdalene, while the Catholic Times gives 1848–1888. Yun Bong-mun and his wife Agnes Jin Sun-ak (listed as Agnes Jin in the Bishops’ brief biography) had a son, Luke Hak-song, and a daughter, Catherine Song-ak. Even after his father later moved and settled in the Haman area, he remained on Geoje Island with his elder brother Peter Yun Gyeong-mun and, as the ‘Apostle of Geoje,’ gathered believers, taught catechism and devoted himself to evangelization (Good News).

In the winter of 1887, when Father Robert, the first parish priest of Daegu Parish, visited Geoje Island for the first time after the Byeongin Persecution to administer the Easter confession, Yun Bong-mun guided the priest and assisted with catechetical instruction and Catholic mission chapel services, and Father Robert appointed him president. That year on Geoje Island, 15 adults taught by the Yun brothers were baptized and entered the Church (Good News, Bishops’ brief biography).

In the spring of the year after Father Robert left Geoje Island, runners from Tongyeong started a persecution in order to satisfy personal greed by arresting Catholic believers. It was a time when public persecution had ended through the French-Korean Treaty of Friendship, but in some local areas private oppression continued (Good News). According to the Bishops’ brief biography, Yun Bong-mun was arrested together with 3 other believers, but he alone was transferred to Tongyeong, where he underwent interrogation and punishment and refused to apostatize. Good News writes that two fellow believers were arrested with him at that time, and explains that although he rejected a demand for 100 nyang in ransom, he was released. Afterwards the Tongyeong magistrate recovered the warrant and obtained an order for the arrest of the Yun brothers, and Yun Bong-mun was arrested again, his house was plundered and 22 oxen were also taken (Good News).

The Tongyeong magistrate reported this to the governor of Daegu, who ordered, ‘Since Catholic believers are all like thieves, transfer Yun Bong-mun to Jinju and execute him’ (Bishops’ brief biography). While being taken to Jinju, Yun Bong-mun suffered the pain of having his heels pierced with thick kudzu vine and his flesh crushed, yet instead he loudly recited the Ten Commandments and the precepts of the Church (Good News). After further interrogation and punishment in Jinju, he was martyred by hanging that night at the hands of prison guards; the date was April 1, 1888 (February 20 of the lunar calendar) and he was 36 years old.

After his martyrdom, Father Robert sent a report to the head of the diocese beginning with the words, ‘I was fortunate to know this holy martyr intimately.’ In this writing, the priest recorded that he was a fervent believer, full of zeal for the conversion of non-believers, and that he had intended to have him help spread the faith to various islands (Bishops’ brief biography).

According to Good News, the martyr’s body was recovered by the president of the Bira-sil (Jangjae-ri) Catholic mission chapel in Jinju and buried on the hill behind the chapel. In 1898, Paul Seong Nak-jin, a believer from Okpo and altar server to Father Udo of Busan Parish, together with the bereaved family brought the remains to Geoje Island and buried them in the ancestral burial ground at Jokbakgol, Jinmokjeong. Later, non-believers in Jinmokjeong changed the place name to ‘Guksan,’ saying it was ‘the village where a Catholic died,’ and it was later changed back to Okpo. On September 24, 1978, marking the 90th anniversary of the martyrdom, believers on Geoje Island erected a martyrdom memorial at the tomb, and parishes in the Geoje and Tongyeong areas promoted projects honoring him and sanctifying the cemetery.

As the martyr’s tomb was in the mountains, difficult for pilgrims to find, and the descendants’ ancestral land had passed into other ownership, the need for reburial was raised. Churches on Geoje Island in the Diocese of Masan formed a reburial committee in September 2000, and after reviewing several candidate sites, Jisepo-ri, Irun-myeon was selected. This site had originally been used by the Archdiocese of Seoul as a credit-union training center and had been donated to the Diocese of Masan. It had been abandoned for lack of an access road, but as a nearby farm road was purchased and an access road was built with the help of Geoje City, development of the shrine began in earnest (Good News).

On April 20, 2013, the Diocese of Masan transferred the martyr’s remains from Okpo to Jisepo-ri and enshrined them behind the monument honoring the martyr. According to Good News, the excavation confirmed fully preserved bones, and a medical specialist confirmed a wound presumed to be a fracture caused by a cudgel on the right pelvis. Yun Bong-mun was beatified by Pope Francis on August 16, 2014 in Gwanghwamun Square, Seoul. On December 30, 2015, through a diocesan personnel appointment, the Diocese of Masan appointed Father Heo Cheol-su as full-time coordinator for the shrine in the Geoje district.

Architecture and Space

According to Good News, believers on Geoje Island continued volunteer work cutting trees and opening paths themselves on the shrine grounds, which had long been abandoned and covered with bamboo and hinoki cypress. As a result, the Way of the Cross and the Rosary Way were first created through the dense forest, and the monument honoring the martyr was erected in the center. The monument honoring the martyr takes the form of a sword, an instrument of torture once placed on criminals.

According to a pilgrimage account in the Catholic Times in 2016, a large rock at the entrance to the shrine is inscribed with the words ‘Shrine of Martyr Blessed Joseph Yun Bong-mun,’ and going up there is a statue of the Madonna and Child. The Way of the Cross runs through a dense forest of moso bamboo, and completing all 14 stations leads to an observatory with a panoramic view of the South Sea. The blessed’s tomb lies beside the observatory, and the diamond-shaped coffin beneath the sword-shaped martyr tower is the blessed’s tomb. The Diocese of Masan plans to build a memorial church for the martyr, an education center, a rectory and convent, a retreat house and dining hall, and more (Good News).

Religious Meaning and Visiting Context

Good News introduces this blessed martyr as the ‘Apostle of Geoje’ who first planted the roots of faith on Geoje Island after the Byeongin Persecution, explaining that he sowed the seed of faith on Geoje Island with his blood and sweat. The Catholic Times introduces this shrine as one point on the Catholic pilgrimage route within the ‘Seom & Seom-gil’ trail course being developed by Geoje City. This pilgrimage route is a 13.7-km (5 hours 40 minutes) course leading from Yegu Village harbor past Seoyimal Lighthouse through the Joseph Yun Bong-mun Shrine to Jisepo Fortress and the Geoje Shipbuilding and Marine Culture Center. The Catholic Times notes that the area around Seoyimal Lighthouse was a remote place where Yun Bong-mun’s father Yun Sau and ‘his brother Gyeong-mun’ built a hut and lived together.

Related Places and People

• Stanislaus Yun Sau: the father of Yun Bong-mun, who entered Geoje Island around 1868 and evangelized.
• Peter Yun Gyeong-mun: the elder brother of Yun Bong-mun, who taught catechism together with him on Geoje Island.
• Father Robert: the first parish priest of Daegu Parish, who visited Geoje Island in 1887 and appointed Yun Bong-mun president.
• Jokbakgol, Okpo: the mountain ancestral burial ground where Yun Bong-mun’s remains were enshrined until 2013.
• Jinju prison: the place where Yun Bong-mun was martyred by hanging.
• Thaddeus Gu Han-seon: the blessed known as the altar server who visited Geoje for evangelization together with Father Ridel just before the Byeongin Persecution.

References and Sources

1. Good News Catholic Information, Shrine of Blessed Joseph Yun Bong-mun in the Diocese of Masan. Confirmed the beginning of evangelization on Geoje Island, Yun Bong-mun’s life and martyrdom, the burial and transfer of his remains, and the development of the shrine.
   https://maria.catholic.or.kr/sa_ho/list/view.asp?Orggubun=71&ctxtOrgCode=71&ctxtOrgNum=4109&menugubun=holyplace
2. Special Episcopal Committee for Beatification and Canonization of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, Brief Biography of 124 Blesseds: Joseph Yun Bong-mun. Confirmed the family’s migration, arrest and transfer, and the date of martyrdom.
   https://cbck.or.kr/koreanmartyrs/124-Martyrs/124
3. Special Episcopal Committee for Beatification and Canonization of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, Related Shrine: Shrine of Martyred Blessed Joseph Yun Bong-mun. Confirmed the settlement in Jinmokjeong and the transfer of the remains on April 20, 2013.
   https://cbck.or.kr/koreanmartyrs/Shrines/97
4. Catholic Times, Walking the Geoje Island Catholic Pilgrimage Route Where Land and Sea Meet (September 6, 2016). Confirmed the shrine facilities and the pilgrimage course.
   https://www.catholictimes.org/article/201609060166665