Jigeam Gongsu

History & origins

The Catholic Encyclopedia of Korea, in describing the history of early mission stations in the present-day Cheongju and Cheongwon area, records that “Jigebawi Mission Station” in Ochang-myeon, Cheongwon County, was established in 1898. At that time, the early mission communities in this area were under Janghowon Parish, and from September 1920 they came under Gomari Parish. Jigebawi is mentioned as one of the early mission stations in the region that continued for a long period.

When Cheongju Parish was established in 1932, the pastoral structure of the Cheongju and Cheongwon area was reorganized again around a parish center. Public sources do not preserve a continuous record of every later jurisdictional change or every alteration to the mission chapel, but the Diocese of Cheongju now lists the mission station on Jigebawi-gil in Ochang-eup as “Jigeam.” The Catholic Directory in Korea lists the mission in the same Ochang area as “Jigebawi” and places it under Ochang Parish.

Taken together, these sources trace the roots of Jigeam Mission Station back to an early Catholic community in Ochang at the end of the nineteenth century. The name and jurisdictional structure changed over time, but the continuity of a mission community in the Ochang area can be verified. The available public records, however, are not sufficient to reconstruct every jurisdictional transfer and every phase of the chapel's construction or renovation without gaps.