Sin-hyeon Mission Station

History & origins

The Catholic community in Sinhyeon-ri took root in the early 1920s. The family of Lee Seok-hui (John), who moved from Seonsan in 1921, crossed mountain roads to attend Mass after Gongpyeong Parish was established in 1922 and shared the faith with neighbors. As the number of Catholics grew, Fr. Kim Mun-ok, pastor of Gongpyeong Parish, established Sinhyeon Mission Station in 1925 and appointed Lee Seok-hui as its first lay leader. At first, Lee's barn was remodeled for use as the mission station, and when the gathering became too large, the community spread mats in the yard and held the mission-station liturgy there.

As the community expanded, members offered small amounts of rice each Sunday to support the mission station and raise funds for a proper building. From 1957, German missionaries of Waegwan Abbey of the Order of St. Benedict took responsibility for pastoral work in the Mungyeong area. When Mungyeong Parish was established in December 1958, Sinhyeon Mission Station came under the new parish. This transition illustrates how a small village community became incorporated into a more organized parish structure during the development of the Church in rural northern Gyeongsang Province.

In 1959, Fr. Ernst Ji In-su, who was serving the Mungyeong area, purchased the former Maseong township-office site and provided a new mission-station building, which was then dedicated. The space did not serve liturgy alone. During a period when Catholic relief supplies from abroad were being distributed, the mission station became a local relief center for village residents, and some residents began learning the catechism and joining the mission-station liturgy through that contact. The history of Sinhyeon thus shows a faith community growing by responding to the concrete needs of local life.

The building was later repaired and maintained while continuing as a place of faith in the center of the village. Recent Catholic reporting describes Sinhyeon as the oldest of the mission stations now under Mungyeong Parish, a distinction rooted in the continuity of voluntary gatherings, offerings, and lived faith that has sustained the community since the 1920s.