Solmoe Holy Ground (솔뫼성지)
‘Solmeo’ gets its name from a small cluster of pine trees. The first Korean priest, Saint Kim Dae-gun Andrea was born here on August 21, 1821 and when he was seven, he escaped persecution by following his grandfather to Handeok-dong, Yongin (Golmaemashil). Furthermore, it is where four generations of ancestors such as his great-grandfather Kim Jin-hu (martyred in 1814), great uncle Kim Han-hyun (1816), father Kim Jae-jun (1839), and priest Kim Dae-gun himself (martyred in 1846) lived.
He was chosen as a theological student in Golmaemashil and studied in Macao. In 1846, he was ordained as priest by Bishop Ferréol in Shanghai, Kim Ga Hang Cathedral. After his return to Korea, he worked in Yongin until September 1846 when he was tried, executed and died a martyr when he was only 26. Pope Johannes Paulus II appointed him a saint during his visit to Korea in May 1984. In Solmoe, Priest Kim Dae-gun’s statue and a memorial stands underneath the pine trees and his remains are placed inside the nearby cathedral.
