Catholic Pilgrimage Tour Korea (2 Night 3 days)

What's Included

Meeting and pickup

Itinerary

Day 1
Pick up and tour start from Seoul
4 stops
1
Myeong-dong Cathedral
This is where the Korean Catholic community was first born and where the remains of many martyrs are buried. In the 2,000-year history of the church, the Korean Catholic Church was founded by Koreans themselves, which is unprecedented. The origin of the Catholic Church in Korea can be said to be in the spring of 1784 when Lee Seung-hun returned to Korea after being baptized in Beijing. However, four years earlier, in January 1780, a lecture series centered around Kwon Cheol-sin was held at Cheonjinam, where prominent young scholars encountered Catholicism. Old Myeongdong Cathedral That fall, Kim Beom-woo, an interpreter living in Myeongrye-bang, Seoul, was influenced by them and converted to Catholicism, opening church ceremonies and doctrine classes at home. By doing so, he laid the foundation for the salvation of the people in the heart of the capital city. Today, the Myeongdong Cathedral, the living history of the Catholic Church in Korea, stands here.
2 hours • Admission ticket included
2
Over a hundred years after the founding of the Catholic Church in Korea in the fall of 1784, countless Catholics were executed at the intersection outside Seosomun. On August 16, 2014, Pope Francis visited the Seosomun Intersection Martyrs' Shrine before the Gwanghwamun beatification ceremony. At the beatification ceremony held afterward, he declared 'Yun Ji-chung and 123 companions' as beatified. Of these, 27 were martyred at the intersection outside Seosomun. Therefore, regarding church history, the Seosomun Negeri Martyrs' Site has become the largest martyrdom site in Korea, producing the most significant number of saints and blessings in a single location.
2 hours • Admission ticket included
3
Saenamteo is a sandy beach on the Han River, and its name comes from the word saenamu-teo, which means grass and trees. It is the place where Roman Catholic priests such as Fr. Ju Moon-mo in 1801 and St. Andrew Kim Dae-geon in 1846 were martyred, and a Catholic church was built in 1987 to commemorate the martyrdom. Construction began in 1984, the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Catholic Church in Korea, and the Saenamteo Memorial Church was built in three years. It is a representative martyrdom site in Korea where 11 out of 14 priests in the history of the Catholic Church in Korea were martyred. From 1801 to 1866, 11 shepherds, including 10 foreign priests, shed their blood as martyrs here. If the intersection outside Seosomun is called the ‘martyrdom site of the laity,’ then this place can be called the ‘martyrdom site of the priests.’
2 hours • Admission ticket included
4
Jeoldusan is a peak located on the east side of Yanghwajin, which was a transportation hub and training ground for warships during the Joseon Dynasty, as well as a place for executions, ancestral rites, and relief (to help the impoverished during famine). It was initially called Jamdubong because it resembled the head of a silkworm or Gaeuldu. The fact that this place, which Chinese envoys praised for its outstanding surrounding scenery, came to be called Jeoldusan because many Catholics were beheaded here is related to the execution of many believers during the Byeongin Persecution in 1866. In 1968, to celebrate the beatification of the 24 martyrs of the Byeong-in Persecution, a burial chamber for their remains was created in the basement of the memorial cathedral. The remains of 27 martyred saints and one unknown martyr are enshrined here.
2 hours • Admission ticket included
Day 2
Gyeonggi-do to Chungcheong Province
4 stops
5
Namhansanseong Fortress
Namhansanseong is a strategic military location in Hanyang. It is a place filled with the will to protect in many ways, through the history of the desperate resistance against foreign invasions and through the examples of martyrs who gave their lives while testifying to their Catholic faith. There is a tradition that believers were imprisoned here since the Sinhae Persecution (1791), and the martyr Thomas Han Deok-un was born during the Sinyu Persecution (1801). Blessed Thomas Han Deok-un was arrested and beheaded for finding the bodies of martyred believers and holding funerals for them, and was the first person to serve as the head of the Yeongnyehoe. In honor of the Blessed’s example, the holy site has been maintained as a place of prayer for the Yeongnyehoe. From the Gihae Persecution (1839) to the Byeong-in Persecution (1866), about 300 believers were martyred by methods such as beheading, hanging, and execution. Unfortunately, only some of the martyrs’ deeds are known.
2 hours • Admission ticket included
6
Suwon Hwaseong Fortress
Suwon Hwaseong Martyrdom Shrine is a Catholic martyrdom shrine located at Suwon Hwaseong, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This was a military and security stronghold where the Topocheong (Jungyeong) of Suwon Yusubu in the late Joseon Dynasty was located. In addition to the 80 or so martyrs recorded in the records of martyrdom during the Byeong-in Persecution (1866-1873), many unknown martyrs sacrificed their lives to testify to their faith by beheading, hanging, beheading, white-paper-mutilation, and imprisonment at the Topocheong, prison, and marketplace outside the castle gate. It was officially declared a martyrdom shrine on September 20, 2000.
2 hours • Admission ticket included
7
Eunyi Village was a Catholic village formed during the persecution period. During this time, Catholic believers gathered to live together to avoid the eyes of their persecutors. The name Eunyi means ‘hidden village.’ Eunyi Seongji was founded on January 13, 1836, by Father Maubant, the first French missionary to enter Joseon. He visited here around April of that year and baptized and gave first communion to Kim Dae-geon (1821-1846), then 15 years old, with the baptismal name "Andrea," and selected him as a seminarian. After he became a priest, he entered Joseon and began his pastoral work here, where he served as a parish. In 2001, when the Jingahang Cathedral in Shanghai, China, where Father Kim Dae-geon was ordained as a priest, was demolished, the demolished materials were brought in, and the Jingahang Cathedral (Yongin Local Cultural Property No. 71) was restored and rebuilt in September 2016 in the same condition as when it was demolished.
2 hours • Admission ticket included
8
During the persecutions of Sin-yu (1801) and Gi-hae (1839), Catholic believers hid here to protect their faith, making pottery and cultivating slash-and-burn fields. At night, the lanterns lit in each house looked like the Milky Way, so it came to be called Mirinae (the Korean word for “Milky Way”). The remains of Father Kim Dae-geon, the first Korean priest martyred during the Byeong-o (1846) persecution and a 2021 UNESCO World Monument, have come to have significant meaning in the church as they were laid to rest in Mirinae by Brother Vincent Lee Min-sik. The holy site includes the tomb of Father Kim Dae-geon, his mother, the late Ursula, Bishop Ferréol who ordained Father Kim Dae-geon, Father Marco Kang Do-yeong, the third priest in Korea and the first parish priest of Mirinae Cathedral, and the tomb of Vincent Lee Min-sik, who moved Father Kim Dae-geon's body from Saenamteo to bury it here and dedicated the cemetery to the church.
2 hours • Admission ticket included
Day 3
Chungcheong Province - Back to Seoul
4 stops
9
Haemi, which never lost its chill during the 100 years of persecution, has the shocking story of thousands of nameless martyrs being driven into pits and holes and buried alive. During this period of persecution, the two large prisons in the Haemi camp were filled with captured believers, and they were dragged out of the west gate every day and killed by hanging, beheading, beating, stoning, death by hanging, and death by hanging. Even more brutal was the practice of grabbing the limbs of a stone bridge, throwing them against a stone, and dropping stone pillars on several people to kill them all at once. It is said that if they found a body that was still squirming because it was not breathing, they would burn its eyes with a torch. Thus, the west gate of Haemi Camp was always filled with the corpses of Catholics, and their blood was said to have filled the river.
2 hours • Admission ticket included
10
Bishop Daveluy, the fifth bishop of the Joseon Diocese, resided in the Sinri Holy Land. He worked in Joseon for 21 years, from October 1845, when he first set foot in Ganggyeong with Father Kim Dae-geon, until his martyrdom at Galmaemot in 1866. Sinri was recognized as the most essential Catholic village during Catholic persecution. It was Joseon's most prominent Catholic village and a secret missionary entry point. This place, which greatly influenced the spread of Catholicism in Korea, is called the Catacomb of Joseon (a secret church from the Roman era). The reason Bishop Daveluy was able to play this role in Sinri can be said to be due to the close connection with the Paris Foreign Missions Society in China through the developed Sapgyocheon water system and the cultural openness of the Naepo region.
1 hour • Admission ticket included
11
The Solmoe Holy Ground, the birthplace of Priest Andrew Kim Dae-geon, is the birthplace of the first priest in Korea, Saint Andrew Kim Dae-geon. Kim Dae-geon was born here on August 21, 1821. At the age of 16, in 1836, Kim Dae-geon was selected as a seminarian by Father Maubant, and together with Choi Yang-eop (Thomas) and Choi Bang-je (Francis), he studied theology in Macau and was ordained in Shanghai by Bishop Ferréol. Father Kim, who entered the country in 1845, worked hard on missionary work and tried to welcome his fellow deacon Choi Yang-eop and foreign missionary priests. He was arrested on June 5, 1846. He was executed by military execution at Saenamteo on September 16, 1846, and became a martyr. This happened after only 1 year and 1 month of his priestly life.
1 hour • Admission ticket included
12
Gongseri Cathedral. The cathedral and priest's residence have been local landmarks since they were built in 1922. The cathedral is of outstanding beauty, evoking a pious and fresh feeling in pilgrims. The old trees and natural scenery, in harmony with the cathedral, warmly soothe the hearts of travelers tired of the world, giving them new vitality in life. Every season, Gongseri Cathedral has this unique beauty reminiscent of the beauty that unfolds in each of the four seasons at Seoraksan Mountain. SoGongseri Cathedral. It became famous as the most beautiful cathedral in Korea, was used as a filming location for movies and dramas, and became a must-see location for photographers. Even today, many photographers visit, and on weekends, pilgrims and tourists from all over the country flock to places where parking lots are insufficient and the village roads narrow. However, when you learn about its history and structure, Gongseri Cathedral's value comes to mind.
1 hour • Admission ticket included

Additional info

• Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
• Service animals allowed
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels

Tags