Shinseon Church

History & origins

Catholic life in the Sinseon area of Yeongdo began well before the establishment of the parish. The Korean Catholic Encyclopedia records that Antonio Seo Sun-ik, baptized in Choryang around 1906, later moved to Yeongdo, and that by around 1910 several Catholics were living together and spreading the faith. As their number grew, Sinseon Mission Station was established under Cheonghak Parish in 1935. When Jungang Parish was established in 1948, the mission station was transferred to its care for a time. In 1949, a temporary hall was prepared on the site of the present church, providing a place for Mass, catechesis, and evening classes.

The Korean War left a distinctive mark on the mission station’s history. Seongsin College, the predecessor of today’s Catholic University of Korea, which had taken refuge on Jeju Island, moved to this site on April 5, 1954, and set up temporary classrooms. The seminary rector also administered the sacraments to Catholics of the mission station, making the small community for a time a place where seminary life and local Catholic life met.

After the seminary returned to Seoul, Sinseon Mission Station again came under Cheonghak Parish and was elevated to a parish on January 5, 1955. Father Philip Kim Gi-bong became the first pastor, and 221 households comprising 700 Catholics were transferred from Jungang Parish. With assistance from U.S. Signal Corps soldiers and relief supplies, construction of a church and rectory began that April. The buildings were completed on December 13 and dedicated by Bishop John Seo Jeong-gil.

The early parish combined church construction with relief and evangelization. It established the Seongmo Geonseolwon for war orphans and worked in connection with the National Catholic Welfare Conference in relief and missionary activity. This history shows that Sinseon grew not merely from an administrative parish division, but from Catholic life in Yeongdo where war, displacement, education, relief, and evangelization intersected.