An-gye Catholic Church

About this place

Angye Catholic Church is the parish church of Angye Parish in the Uiseong district of the Diocese of Andong. It is the center for the parish's sacramental, liturgical, and communal life in the Angye-myeon area of Uiseong County. The directory of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea lists St. Francis Xavier as the patron of Angye Parish, while the Diocese of Andong's current status also confirms Angye as one of its established parishes. The parish has served to gather Catholics across the rural western part of Uiseong into a common parish community.

Angye Parish has pastoral responsibility for Ssangho Mission Station and thus connects the parish church with a rural mission community. Ssangho in particular preserves a long Catholic-village tradition and a history of Catholic farmers' activity, showing that Catholic life in the area extends beyond the parish church into the everyday life of surrounding villages. The exact establishment date of Angye Parish, however, is currently recorded differently by the Diocese of Andong and the directory of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, so its chronology requires separate verification.

St. Francis Xavier, the parish patron, is widely venerated as a missionary saint. The fact that Angye Parish embraces both its parish church and Ssangho Mission Station shows how a central church and a rural mission can perform different roles while forming one pastoral community within the same region.