Cheongsan Church

History & origins

In May 1959, land was prepared for the establishment of a parish in the Cheongsan area, and on September 1 of that year Cheongsan Parish was created by dividing territory from Yeongdong and Okcheon parishes. Father Joseph Herbert of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers became the first pastor, and the church and rectory were completed in May 1960. Construction of an education hall and convent followed, with a blessing held in 1963, and in 1964 a community of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was established there.

The parish also invested in education as part of its mission. Seongeun Middle Academy was founded in 1968 and used the parish education hall, but financial difficulties led to its closure at the end of 1970. When the Maryknoll missionaries withdrew from the Diocese of Cheongju in 1980, the parish faced changes in both financial circumstances and religious-community ministry, and continued to sustain itself under new conditions through the diocese and the local Catholic community.

From the late 1980s, the parish worked to improve both parish and mission-station spaces. In 1988 a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was blessed at Yongsan Mission Station and the parish Marian garden was blessed. In 1989 the church was expanded and repaired, followed by observances of the parish's thirtieth anniversary. After the convent was renovated in 1991, a community of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Mirinae was established, and in 1995 the parish bell was consecrated and the bell tower blessed.

In the late 1990s, the parish also repaired Yegok Mission Station and blessed the building at Hwaseong Mission Station, improving the faith environment of its outlying communities. This history shows that the development of Cheongsan Parish was not simply a sequence of changes to one church building, but a continuing effort to sustain and expand the foundations of Catholic community life together with mission stations spread across a broad rural area.