Peter Shrine

Overview

The Peter Yi Seung-hun Shrine is a shrine of the Incheon Diocese in the Jangsu-dong area of Namdong-gu, Incheon, containing the burial grounds of Peter Yi Seung-hun (1756–1801), the first baptized member of the Korean Catholic Church, and the shrine memorial hall commemorating him. This area is called Banjugol or Jangsu-dong, and Yi’s tomb was designated on December 29, 2011 as Incheon Monument No. 63.

History

Yi Seung-hun’s ancestral seat was Pyeongchang, his courtesy name was Jasul, and his pen name was Mancheon. According to the brief biography by the Special Episcopal Committee for Beatification and Canonization of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, he was born in Yakhyon in Banseok-bang, Seoul (present-day Jungnim-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul). The Incheon city website explains that his birthplace was Banjugol on the outskirts of Namdong-gu, Incheon. The brief biography says that in 1780 he passed the sama examination and became a jinsa, while Good News Catholic Information says he passed the jinsa examination at age 24, and the brief biography records it as at age 25, so the stated age differs by source. Afterwards, in 1790 he was appointed to the post of Uigeumbu dosa, and the following year he was appointed magistrate of Pyeongtaek-hyeon.

In late 1783, Yi Seung-hun went to Beijing with his father and, at the request of Yi Byeok, met missionaries at the North Church in Beijing, and early the following year he was baptized by Jesuit Father Grammont with the baptismal name Peter. The brief biography describes this as becoming the first believer of Joseon. After returning home, in winter 1784 at the house of Yi Byeok near Supyo Bridge in Seoul, he baptized Gwon Il-sin, his brother-in-law Jeong Yak-yong, Yi Byeok and others, forming the first faith community with them. Good News explains that he returned home with Catholic catechisms, crucifixes, sacred images and other items.

In spring 1785, when the gathering held at the house of Kim Beom-u in Myeongnye-bang, Seoul was discovered by officials of the Hyeongjo in the Eulsa Chujo Discovery Incident, according to the account of Good News he burned Catholic books, wrote an anti-Catholic tract and left the Church for the first time. In 1786 he returned to the Church and, with his companions, established the pseudo-clerical system and served as a priest for about 1 years. In 1787 he was discovered while studying Church books with Jeong Yak-yong and others in Ban-chon in front of Seonggyungwan, and in 1791 he was arrested in connection with the Jinsan Incident concerning the abolition of ancestral rites, interrogated, and lost his official post. The brief biography records that early the following year, when he took office as magistrate of Pyeongtaek, he suffered hardship for refusing to perform obeisance at the Munmyo shrine of the local hyanggyo.

In 1790, when Yun Yu-il, who had been sent to Beijing as a secret envoy, returned and conveyed the order of Bishop Gouvea of the Beijing Diocese prohibiting the pseudo-clerical system and ancestral rites, he left the Church again over the issue of ancestral rites. Later he returned to the Church and campaigned to bring in clergy, bringing Chinese Father James Zhou Wenmo into the country, but in 1795 this was discovered and he was exiled to Yesan in Chungcheongnam-do, then released the following year. The brief biography reports in this process both Jeong Yak-jong’s statement that “Yi Seung-hun did not devote himself to the faith after 1791” and Father Zhou Wenmo’s remark that “Yi Seung-hun had already left the Church” by the time Father Zhou entered the country, while also reporting Hwang Sa-yeong’s record that “although he wrote several writings denouncing Catholicism, none of them was done from his true heart.”

When the Sinyu Persecution broke out in 1801, he was singled out as a leader of Catholicism and arrested. Good News gives the arrest date as March 22, while the brief biography gives March 23 (lunar February 10). He underwent six interrogations and punishments at the Uigeumbu, and on April 8 (lunar February 26) he was martyred by beheading at the crossroads execution ground outside Seosomun. According to the brief biography, he made no statements harmful to the Church and did not betray believers. Good News introduces the Chinese poem he recited just before his beheading, meaning that, as “the moon, though it sets behind the western mountains, remains in the sky,” so even if others say he apostatized, his faith remains intact in the Lord, and as “water, though it surges above the pond, remains whole within the pond,” so even if his life is taken, his faith is unchanged. The Incheon Diocese introduces his martyrdom faith with the phrase wollak jaecheon, susang jijin.

His descendants were also martyred. Yi Seung-hun’s son Matthias Yi Sin-gyu and grandson Thomas Yi Jae-ui were martyred at Seosomun in Seoul in 1868. Good News writes that they were martyred during the Byeongin Persecution in 1866, so the year differs by source. The graves of Yi Seung-hun’s eldest son Yi Taek-gyu and his 3 son Yi Sin-gyu are also in Banjugol. The Incheon city website says that his great-grandsons, brothers Yi Yeon-gu and Yi Jeok-gu, were discovered to have boarded an American fleet during the Sinmi-yangyo and provided information about Korea, and were executed at Jemulpo, while Good News writes that his granddaughter-in-law Ms. Jeong and great-grandsons Yi Yeon-gu and Gyun-gu were beheaded at Jemuljin-du in Incheon in 1871. The Incheon city website explains that five martyrs were buried side by side on Jogoksan Mountain in Jangsu-dong, their hometown, and the Incheon Diocese introduces this family as having produced, over 4 generations, 8 martyrs.

Part of Yi Seung-hun’s remains was moved to Cheonjinam Shrine in Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do. Good News says that for the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Joseon diocese, in 1981 the remains from Banjugol were transferred to the burial grounds for the founding ancestors of the Korean Catholic Church at Cheonjinam Shrine and enshrined beside Jeong Yak-jong, brothers Gwon Cheol-sin and Il-sin, and Yi Byeok, while the city of Incheon gives the transfer year as 1982. The city of Incheon explains that Yi Seung-hun’s remains were moved together with his wife’s, so that now in Banjugol only the tombstone and the site remain, and the shrine memorial hall explains that, 180 years after his martyrdom for the faith, most of the remains had already returned to dust.

The process of developing the shrine is summarized in the chronology of the Peter Yi Seung-hun Shrine Memorial Hall. Father O Gi-seon met Yi Seung-hun’s great-grandson Yi Hak-ho, a scholar of Korean medicine, in 1933, and in 1967 visited Yi Seung-hun’s tomb with 5th-generation descendant Yi Byeong-gyu and others, after which the project to sanctify the burial grounds began at the Incheon Diocese level. Another entry in the chronology states that after visiting the tomb with Yi Byeong-gyu, a tombstone was erected in 1968. While conducting on-site investigations for “Servants of God,” the Beatification and Canonization Committee of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea verified that the tomb in Jangsu-dong is the actual burial site. On December 29, 2011 the burial grounds were designated as Incheon Monument No. 63, and on January 24, 2014 the Incheon Diocese launched the Shrine Development Support Association to lead the diocesan project to sanctify martyrdom shrines, announcing a plan to develop the area, in cooperation with the city of Incheon, into a history and culture park with a history-culture memorial hall and pilgrimage routes.

The city of Incheon created the Peter Yi History Park covering about 4 ten thousands and 6 thousands of square meters, providing the deck road “Way of the Cross” leading from the memorial hall to the burial grounds, a Pieta pond, and a plaza. Construction of the shrine memorial hall proceeded, a Martyrs Exaltation Mass co-celebrated by the Apostolic Nuncio was held, and the shrine memorial hall opened. The 1,801-meter section of road near the burial grounds was named “Peter Yi Seung-hun Road” after Peter Yi Seung-hun’s martyrdom year (1801), with road signs and sculptures installed.

Faith Significance and Visiting Context

Yi Seung-hun is a “Servant of God” included among the 132 companions of John the Baptist Yi Byeok and his fellow martyrs whose beatification process in the Korean Catholic Church is underway. According to the shrine memorial hall, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea has promoted the beatification of martyrs under the Joseon Dynasty including Peter Yi Seung-hun since 2009, and in October 2016 received a “nihil obstat” decree (Prot. N. 3087-4/16) from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. The Incheon Diocese introduces this place as a shrine for seeking the roots of faith and experiencing martyrdom faith.

The Incheon city website explains that after his baptism in Beijing in 1784, he formed a faith community centered on the house of Kim Beom-u in Seoul and began giving baptisms from September, which is the origin of the Korean Catholic Church, and that it was a community composed only of lay people without a priest. The shrine memorial hall introduces this as a case of seeking the truth and embracing the faith on one’s own without the help of missionaries.

Related Places and People

• Cheonjinam Shrine: the place where part of Yi Seung-hun’s remains was moved and enshrined in the burial grounds for the founding ancestors of the Korean Catholic Church.
• Crossroads execution ground outside Seosomun: the place where Yi Seung-hun was martyred on April 8, 1801.
• John the Baptist Yi Byeok: the friend who urged Yi Seung-hun to visit Beijing and made the request to him.
• Matthias Yi Sin-gyu and Thomas Yi Jae-ui: Yi Seung-hun’s son and grandson, who were martyred.
• Father Grammont: the Jesuit priest who baptized Yi Seung-hun at the North Church in Beijing.

References and Sources

1. Peter Yi Seung-hun Shrine Memorial Hall, Peter Yi Seung-hun and His Footsteps (Chronology). Confirmed the Servant of God status, the shrine development process, designation as Incheon Monument No. 63, the history park and Peter Yi Seung-hun Road, the beatification promotion in 2009 and the “nihil obstat” decree in 2016.
   https://www.leeseunghoon.org/milestone
   https://www.leeseunghoon.org/about
2. Good News Catholic Information, Tomb of Peter Yi Seung-hun of the Incheon Diocese (Banjugol) (citing and supplementing Ju Pyeong-guk, From Heaven to the Ends of the Earth, Catholic Publishing House, 1996). Confirmed his life, apostasy and return, martyrdom, the martyrdom of his descendants, the transfer in 1981, the monument designation in 2011, and the launch of the Shrine Development Support Association in 2014.
   https://maria.catholic.or.kr/sa_ho/list/view.asp?ctxtOrgNum=2271&menugubun=holyplace
3. Special Episcopal Committee for Beatification and Canonization of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, Brief Biographies of the 133 Beatification Candidates 5. Peter Yi Seung-hun. Confirmed birthplace, passing the jinsa examination, baptism in Beijing, the first faith community in winter 1784, the process of persecution, and the dates of arrest and martyrdom.
   https://www.cbck.or.kr/koreanmartyrs/133-Martyrs/5
4. City of Incheon, Incheon Folktales: Yi Seung-hun, the First Baptized Catholic in Korea. Confirmed the connection with Banjugol, the martyrdom of his son, grandson and great-grandsons, burial on Jogoksan and the transfer to Cheonjinam in 1982.
   https://www.incheon.go.kr/IC040310/1515709
5. Incheon Diocese, Introduction to the Peter Yi Seung-hun Shrine. Confirmed the description of a family that, over 4 generations, produced 8 martyrs.
   http://www.caincheon.or.kr/intro/shirine_05.jsp