Minji Mission

History & origins

The history of Minji Mission Station begins in 1974, when Timothy Jo Dong-hui moved to Minji-ri and started evangelizing local residents. He helped Catholics who had become inactive return to the practice of the faith, opened catechism classes for prospective converts in his own home, distributed Catholic books, and continued missionary work within the village. A diocesan account citing the Andong Catholic History records that a faith community gradually formed among the residents through these efforts.

On this foundation, Minji Mission Station was established in 1977. In the early years, the faithful went to nearby Nongam Mission Station on Sundays for communal prayer, but as the community took root they began to work toward having a place of their own. With help from the parish, neighboring mission stations, and benefactors, construction began in 1981. The faithful continued to pray together for the project during the roughly two years until the building was completed.

The present mission building was dedicated on July 5, 1983, in a ceremony presided over by Bishop René Dupont, then Bishop of Andong. The building, about 12 pyeong in area, was constructed with roughly three million won collected through the offerings of the faithful and benefactors. At the time of the dedication, Minji-ri had 31 households and 127 residents; records state that 39 were baptized Catholics and seven were catechumens.

The history of Minji Mission Station is less a story of large institutions or monumental architecture than of evangelization by individuals, the participation of villagers, and the prayer and offerings of a small community becoming a concrete place of faith. The local missionary work that began in the 1970s and the building effort of the 1980s explain why the surviving chapel remains a witness to the Catholic history of this village. The fact that the earliest evangelization moved through a private home and personal relationships, and that the community later raised funds together for a chapel, gives a concrete picture of how a rural mission station could take shape. The proportion of baptized Catholics and catechumens recorded at the dedication also shows that the mission station had become part of village life rather than remaining an institution outside it.