About this place
The Site of Kim Beom-u's House, around 66 Eulji-ro in Jung-gu, Seoul, is a Catholic historical stop on the Seoul Pilgrimage Route's “Way of the Word.” It commemorates the Myeongnyebang community, where Catholics gathered in Kim Beom-u Thomas's house in late 1784 to study the faith and pray.
When the meeting was discovered by the authorities in the spring of 1785, Kim Beom-u refused to abandon his faith and was punished and exiled. The archdiocesan pilgrimage route remembers him as Korea's first Catholic “confessor/witness.” The original house no longer survives; the urban site and marker preserve the memory of the lay-led beginnings of the Korean Catholic Church.
History & origins
After Peter Yi Seung-hun returned from Beijing baptized in 1784, the first Korean Catholics studied the faith and organized a community largely on their own. By late that year, Thomas Kim Beom-u's house in Myeongnyebang had become an important regular meeting place for prayer and catechesis.
In the spring of 1785 officials discovered the gathering in the event known as the Eulsa Chujo incident and arrested the participants. Aristocratic believers were released under family pressure, but Kim Beom-u, from the middle social class, refused to abandon the faith, was punished and exiled to Danyang, and died in 1786 from the aftereffects of torture. The episode is remembered as the first major collision between the self-formed Korean Catholic community and state authority.
Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia
Kim Beom-woo's Home Site Shrine: history and architecture
Read about the place's history, architecture, people, and events in the Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia.
Encyclopedia articles are currently available in Korean.
Pilgrimages passing here
Would you like to record this place in your pilgrimage passport?
Sign in to keep this record with you.
Accessibility information
Accessibility information is not available yet. Please check with the location before visiting.
Sources and updates
- Information Status
- Official
- Source
- Official source
- Data freshness
- Fresh
- Last updated
- Source
- 한국천주교주교회의 온라인 주소록
Diocese
Official website: https://aos.catholic.or.kr
Help verify information
Did the Mass schedule or church information change?
Let us know if you confirmed the displayed information or noticed something different.
Information Status: Official source
Visited here? Share details about toilets, parking or ramps.
Sign in to leave a visitor check.
Sign in to confirm the schedule or report a change.
Reports are saved for review. Mass times are changed after evidence such as official sources is checked, not automatically based on visitor confirmations.