Okcheon Catholic Church

History & origins

The history of the parish reaches back to the early twentieth century. The Catholic Encyclopedia of Korea records that the parish was separated from Gongju Parish on May 20, 1906, with Fr. 홍병철 (Luke) appointed as its first pastor. At that time, 옥천 served as the center of a broad pastoral territory covering 옥천, 영동, 보은, and part of southern Cheongju.

The parish center did not remain in one place. In 1914 it was moved to 비룡, and in 1919 it was moved again to 방축리 in Daejeon and renamed 대전본당, leaving 옥천 as a mission station. 옥천 became a parish again in September 1928 when Fr. 윤예원 (Thomas) was assigned there. This sequence shows that the present parish emerged through a period of pastoral reorganization in which 옥천 moved between the status of parish center and mission station.

The present church building was reshaped in the postwar period. The Korea Heritage Service estimates that an earlier church was built in either 1945 or 1948 and explains that the current Western-style church was reconstructed in 1955 by an American Maryknoll missionary priest. Originally a rectangular hall-type plan, it was changed to a cruciform plan in 1991 when the rear wall was removed and a transept and sanctuary apse were added.

The building was registered as National Registered Heritage on February 28, 2002 and has since been preserved through repair and conservation work. The site is distinctive because the early-twentieth-century history of the parish, the church architecture of the 1950s, subsequent alterations, and modern heritage conservation are all layered together in one place.