Bundang Gumi-dong Church

History & origins

Bundang Gumi-dong Parish was established on January 28, 2003. It emerged during the continuing growth of Bundang New Town, when parish boundaries were being adjusted and new communities were created closer to the daily living areas of Catholics. Our Lady of Perpetual Help was designated as the patron, and official records show the parish developing around the Catholic community of the Gumi-dong area.

On March 10, 2011, the Diocese of Suwon formally approved changing the then name “Gumi-dong” to “Bundang St. Mary.” The new name directly expressed the parish’s Marian patronage. The diocesan chronology records the dedication of “Bundang St. Mary Catholic Church” on May 14, 2017, confirming another major stage in the community’s development from an established parish to a dedicated permanent church.

Today, both the official Catholic directory and recent Diocese of Suwon schedules once again use the name “Bundang Gumi-dong.” The publicly available official sources do not establish the precise date on which the name changed from Bundang St. Mary to the current form, so that date should not be inferred. The sequence that can be verified is the parish establishment in 2003, the Marian name change in 2011, the church dedication in 2017, and the present use of Bundang Gumi-dong. The history of the parish name thus reflects changing choices about whether to foreground the local place name or the patron saint, while the continuity of the community itself remains clear from the same address, patron, and official parish identity.