Sangpyeong Mission

History & origins

The beginnings of Sangpyeong Mission Station go back to the period immediately after the Korean War armistice. According to a history of mission stations published by the Catholic Peace Newspaper, the family of Hilarius Lee Sang-geun and Joanna Yun moved to Sangpyeong-ri and began holding mission-station prayers in their home. Together with Anna Lee, they evangelized their neighbors, while Joseph Lee Gang-jun, an evangelization leader from Gamgok Parish, also visited the village and assisted the mission. As the number of Catholics increased, Father James H. Ray of the Maryknoll Missioners, then pastor of Gamgok Parish, formally established Sangpyeong Mission Station in 1955.

Even after formal establishment, the community continued to gather at the Lee family home for some time. In 1963, Father An Gil-mo, pastor of Gamgok Parish, purchased a 17.5-pyeong building in Sangpyeong-ri for use as the mission station. The move from a private home to a dedicated communal place marked an important stage in the stabilization of Catholic life in the village.

The facilities were later renewed again. The record states that construction to replace the old and cramped mission station began on September 11, 1987, and was completed about three months later. It also records that by the end of January 1996 the mission station had been rebuilt as a single-story red-brick building with a site of 661 square meters and a total floor area of 92.5 square meters. These improvements were accompanied by voluntary participation from the members of the mission community.

Sangpyeong's history thus runs from mission prayers in one Catholic family's home after the war, through formal establishment, acquisition of a dedicated building, and later rebuilding. Evangelization, common prayer, and the creation of a shared place were not isolated events but successive stages in the formation of the community. The process shows how a small rural Catholic group grew beyond a private household into a stable mission station and a local center of evangelization connected with Gamgok Parish.