Suyeongjang Martyr Shrine

History & origins

During the Joseon period, the headquarters of the Gyeongsang Left Naval Command was located in the Suyeong area. Suyeong Jangdae served not only as a place for military command and training but also as an execution ground. Its direct connection with Catholic martyrdom dates to September 19, 1868, during the Byeongin Persecution. According to the Diocese of Busan, eight Catholics, including John Yi Jeong-sik and Martin Yang Jae-hyeon, endured torture here and were executed by military beheading.

The memory of the place did not disappear entirely. From the 1950s, Catholics continued to identify Jangdaegol as a site of martyrdom, and prayers and commemorative rites were held around the feast of the martyrs. In 1977, a priest and young parishioners from Gwangan Parish investigated the area and found the Jangdae stone and fragments of roof tiles, giving renewed physical confirmation to the historical memory of the site.

The Diocese of Busan began a formal project to preserve and sanctify the site in 1987. With contributions from the faithful of Gwangan Parish, land was secured and a place of commemoration was prepared. In 1988, a memorial to the martyrs was erected and unveiled, formally establishing the shrine. Through this process, a memory long sustained through oral tradition and devotion was preserved as a diocesan place of pilgrimage.

Today the Suyeong Jangdae Martyrs’ Shrine shows how a Joseon-period military and execution site became a place of Catholic remembrance. Its significance lies less in the buildings themselves than in the history of the martyrs’ witness and in the local Church’s continuing effort to remember and preserve that witness.