Jwapodocheong Site

Overview

The Jwapodocheong Site is the site where the Jwapodocheong, the public security and criminal investigation authority in Seoul during the Joseon period, once stood, and it is a historic site of the Church in Seoul where many Catholic believers were interrogated during the persecutions and witnessed to their faith or were martyred. It is the fourth pilgrimage site on Course 1 of the Seoul Catholic Pilgrimage Route, the ‘Way of the Word’.

History

The Podocheong was a government office of the Joseon period in charge of interrogating criminals, arresting thieves, patrolling, and related duties. According to the Encyclopedia of Korean National Culture, the Jwapocheong was located northeast of Pajagyo in Jeongseonbang, Jungbu (the area around 56 in present-day Sueun-dong, Jongno-gu). The Martyrs Exaltation Committee explains that the Jwapodocheong governed eastern, southern, and central Seoul and Gyeonggi-jwado, and that it was established around the time of King Jungjong and lasted until its reorganization into the Gyeongmucheong (Police Bureau) in July 1894 (the 31 year of King Gojong). The Encyclopedia of Korean National Culture introduces recent research viewing the early reign of King Seongjong as the time of the Podocheong’s establishment, and notes that records concerning the Podocheong first appear in 1540 (the 35 year of King Jungjong).

According to the website of Jongno Church of the Archdiocese of Seoul, the Podocheong became directly connected with the persecution of Catholicism in 1795, at the time of the Eulmyo Persecution. After the Buksan Incident, in which the Jwapodocheong failed to arrest the Chinese Father Ju Mun-mo, Matthias Choe In-gil, Paul Yun Yu-il, and Saba Ji Hwang were arrested, beaten at the Jwapodocheong, and martyred, and this website writes that the history of Catholic martyrdom began first at the Jwapodocheong. The same website records that in 1833, the secret envoy Peter Hwang Seok-ji died of illness at the Jwapodocheong, and that in the Gimyo year of 1879, Yi Byeong-gyo, Kim Deok-bin, and Yi Yong-heon were martyred by starvation at the Jwapodocheong, and that they were the last martyrs of the Catholic Church in Korea.

The Martyrs Exaltation Committee states that countless believers were martyred at the Left and Right Podocheong during the persecutions, but cases in which the records clearly distinguish the two offices are not many. As saints clearly recorded as martyred at the Jwapodocheong, it lists Francis Choe Gyeong-hwan, Peter Yu Dae-cheol, Stephen Min Geuk-ga, Peter Nam Gyeong-mun, Joseph Im Chi-baek, and others. It also explains that during the Gihae Persecution, Paul Jeong Ha-sang, Bishop Imbert, Father Maubant, and Father Chastan witnessed to their faith here until the end before being led to the execution ground.

Architecture and Space

The website of the Seoul Catholic Pilgrimage Route notes as meaningful that the Jwapodocheong site is currently used as the Jongno 3-ga Public Safety Center, so that the policing function continues in part. The Martyrs Exaltation Committee directs pilgrims to the front of the Jongno 3-ga Public Safety Center as the location of the pilgrimage site.

Religious Meaning and Context for Visiting

According to the Martyrs Exaltation Committee, of 103 saints, 22 were martyred at the Podocheong, and of 124 blesseds, 5 were martyred at the Podocheong. The Jongno Church website introduces those who witnessed to their faith at the Left and Right Podocheong and the Jeonokseo as 24 of 103 saints, 5 of 124 blesseds, and 24 of 133 Servants of God, and, judging from the fact that 106 of the 149 Seoul-area martyrs whose places of martyrdom are confirmed, from the Byeongin Persecution of 1866 to 1879, were martyred at the Podocheong, it estimates the Podocheong to be the largest martyrdom site in Seoul. Cardinal Yeom Su-jeong, Archbishop of Seoul, designated nearby Jongno Church as the ‘Podocheong Pilgrimage Church’ in February 2013.

Related Places and People

• Jongno Church (Podocheong Pilgrimage Church): it has a memorial hall honoring the Podocheong (prison site) martyrs on basement level 1.
• Upodocheong Site: it is a martyrdom site commemorating the site of the Upodocheong, which stood south of Hyejeonggyo in Seorinbang.
• Founding Site of the Catholic Church in Korea, Seokjeong Boreum Well: pilgrimage sites belonging together to Course 1 of the Seoul Pilgrimage Route, the ‘Way of the Word’.
• Matthias Choe In-gil, Paul Yun Yu-il, and Saba Ji Hwang: blesseds martyred at the Jwapodocheong during the Eulmyo Persecution of 1795.

References and Sources

1. Martyrs Exaltation Committee of the Archdiocese of Seoul, entry on the Jwapodocheong Site in ‘Seoul Catholic Pilgrimage Route: Way of the Word (Course 1)’. Verified location and jurisdiction, period of existence, numbers of Podocheong martyr saints and blesseds, and names of Jwapodocheong martyrs.
   https://martyrs.or.kr/_web/mpilgrims/aboutcourse.html?cidx=6
2. Seoul Catholic Pilgrimage Route (seoulpilgrim.com), ‘Course 1: Way of the Word’. Verified its presentation as the fourth pilgrimage site and the explanation that it is currently used as the Jongno 3-ga Public Safety Center.
   https://seoulpilgrim.com/course/1/
3. Jongno Church of the Archdiocese of Seoul, ‘Introduction to the Podocheong (Prison Site) Pilgrimage Site’. Verified the Eulmyo Persecution and the martyrs of the Jwapodocheong, the last martyrs of 1879, statistics on martyrdom sites in the Seoul area, and the designation as a pilgrimage church in 2013.
   http://www.jongnocc.or.kr/20
4. Academy of Korean Studies, Encyclopedia of Korean National Culture, ‘Podocheong’. Verified the functions of the Podocheong, the location of the Jwapocheong, research on the time of establishment, and the reorganization into the Gyeongmucheong in 1894.
   https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0060140