Seongsim Chapel

History & origins

The origins of Seongsim Mission Station are closely tied to the problem of settlement for people with Hansen's disease who had lost stable housing and livelihoods after the Korean War. According to mission-station records published by the Diocese of Andong, Fr. Eligius Kohler of Seomun-dong Parish saw their hardship and in 1956 secured two thatched houses in Hwasan-ri, Sangju, where roughly fifty to sixty people could live. He also arranged regular medical visits, so the effort developed not simply as the provision of shelter but as a form of care that addressed both health and daily life.

In 1958, after the community experienced outside harassment and unstable living conditions, Lee Gyeong-suk Samuel was chosen as a leader from within the group. Fr. Kohler asked Fr. Reginald of Hamchang Parish to help select a more secure site and manage the practical work of construction. Land was obtained in Yeokgok-ri, Gonggeom-myeon, and work began on a new settlement. At this stage, the formation of Seongsim was not merely the construction of a place of worship; it involved creating housing, access to medical care, and an ordered basis for communal life together.

The Korean Catholic Directory records June 19, 1959, as the establishment date of Seongsim Mission Station. Another Church historical source reports that land in Yeokgok-ri was purchased on the same date for the opening of Seongsimwon and the construction of housing, showing how the mission station and the settlement developed in close connection during the same period. The community later worked toward economic self-reliance through agriculture and livestock raising, and it continued as a Catholic community after the Diocese of Andong was established in 1969.

Today the Catholic Social Welfare Association of the Diocese of Andong lists Seongsim Village and Seongsim Mission Station together among the diocese's Hansen-settlement communities. The history of Seongsim is therefore the history of Church workers and residents building a place of settlement together in an era of severe discrimination against Hansen's disease, and forming a faith community within the search for a stable daily life. The key to understanding its origins is that housing, medical care, self-reliance, and prayer were not separate undertakings but parts of one communal process.