Mirinae Sanctuary

History & origins

The Catholic community of Mirinae took shape as believers fleeing persecution around the periods of the Sinyu Persecution of 1801 and the Gihae Persecution of 1839 settled in the mountains, making pottery and farming burned fields. After St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon was martyred during the Byeong-o Persecution of 1846, Vincent Yi Min-sik carried his body from Saenamteo and buried it on his family land at Mirinae. The tomb then became a focus of private veneration and pilgrimage among Catholics and was the decisive factor by which Mirinae came to occupy a special place in Korean Catholic memory.

The Catholic village suffered greatly during later persecution but was rebuilt, and in 1896 its mission station was elevated to a parish, serving as a center for the surrounding Catholic communities. In 1901, during the beatification process, part of Father Kim’s remains was exhumed and transferred to Seoul, yet the tomb site and the memory attached to Mirinae continued to be preserved. After Father Kim was beatified, Father Mark Kang Do-yeong led the construction in 1928 of a chapel commemorating him, and pilgrimage to the chapel and grave gradually expanded.

In 1960 the site received recognition as a pilgrimage sanctuary approved by Pope John XXIII. After the Diocese of Suwon was established, the parish was suppressed for a period, but in 1976 religious institutes settled at Mirinae and the parish was restored, while systematic development of the shrine also accelerated. A large-scale national gathering honoring the martyrs was held in the same period, and roads, a plaza, outdoor Stations of the Cross, and a church commemorating the Korean martyrs were subsequently developed in stages.

The Memorial Church of St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon, which preserves its original form as a modern Catholic church building, was registered as cultural heritage in 2023. Mirinae thus broadened in meaning from a hidden refuge and grave site to a mission station and parish, then to a pilgrimage destination and a diocesan center for honoring the martyrs. The landscape of the shrine today layers together the hidden lives of persecuted Catholics, the memory of the martyrs, the work of the parish community and religious institutes, and the Church’s formal commemoration across different periods.