Haemi, South Korea, Jan 14, 2022 / 12:00 pm
A shrine honoring South Korea’s Catholic martyrs has celebrated its designation as an international pilgrimage site.
During the celebration in December, Bishop Augustinus Jong-soo Kim, an auxiliary bishop of Daejeon, formally presented a decree from the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization to the shrine’s rector, Father Han Gwang-seok.
The Vatican dicastery recognized the Haemi Catholic Martyrs’ Shrine as an international pilgrimage destination on March 1, 2021, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop, a local missionary priest declared venerable in 2016.
The shrine near Seosan, a city in South Chungcheong Province, central South Korea, marks the spot where more than 1,000 Catholics were killed during a persecution unleashed under the Joseon Dynasty between 1866 and 1882.