Surisan Sacred Site

History & origins

In the late 1830s, Francis Choe Gyeong-hwan moved with his family deep into Mt. Surisan to escape persecution and became a leader of the Catholics who gathered there. Diocesan sources describe the community as taking shape around 1838. In a secluded mountain setting, believers prayed together, supported one another, and maintained Catholic life despite continuing pressure from the authorities.

During the Gihae Persecution of 1839, Choe Gyeong-hwan was arrested and died in prison after severe torture and beating. His wife, Maria Yi Seong-rye, was martyred at Dangogae the following year. Their son Thomas Choe Yang-eop later became the second Korean priest and traveled widely to minister to Catholics living under persecution. The history of one family thus brought together lay leadership, martyrdom, and priestly vocation.

The saint's tomb and the memory of the old Catholic village continued to draw later generations of believers, and the area was gradually developed as a place of pilgrimage. During the Great Jubilee of 2000 it was designated as a diocesan pilgrimage site, with a pilgrimage church, a reconstructed mission-station space, and devotional paths such as the Stations of the Cross. Surisan Shrine therefore preserves not simply a persecution episode but a broader memory of lay responsibility, faith transmitted within a family, martyrdom, and vocation.