Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

Namyang Rosary Hill, where the Mother welcomes the martyrs

Hated, Hwaseng (Korea)

To the south of Seoul, in Namyang (town of Hwaseong, Gyeonggi province), a wide Marian sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin is extended under the title of Queen of the Martyrs. The area is closely linked to the memory of Korean Catholics persecuted in the 18th and 19th centuries, who gathered in rural villages to live the faith. There the Korean Church wanted to memorize that testimony by bringing it closer to Mary's motherhood.

The place was designated Holy Place on 7 October 1991the date on which the Church's calendar corresponds to the the feast of the Virgin of the Rosary: a full coincidence, which links the sanctuary to the prayer of the Rosary and to the rosarian advocation. In time, Namyang has become one of the main pilgrimage centres of the country, with wide open spaces, ways of meditation, chapels and memorials of the martyrs, ready to host large groups of faithful.

What is documented is sober and beautiful: Korean pilgrims do Penitential pilgrimages a sanctuaries of martyrs like Namyang, praying the Rosary and the Way of the Cross in memory of the suffering of the Church, pilgriming in family and leaving exvotes of gratitude for favors received. Instead, no consta in accessible sources apparition nor any officially recognized miracle in Namyang; neither is a detailed and verifiable story of the image venerated there. The accent of the place is not in the extraordinary, but in the contemplation of Mary by the cross of her children.

Therefore, the title "Queen of Martyrs" expresses a truth of faith deeply felt in Korea: Mary as a Mother who accompanies the suffering and faithfulness of her people. And the Rosary finds its natural place here, for in meditating on the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries, the pilgrim unites himself with the Mother on the very path of Christ that the Korean martyrs walked to the end.