Seowoon-dong Church

About this place

Seoundong Catholic Church is the parish church of Seoundong Parish in the Sangdang District of the Catholic Diocese of Cheongju, with the Sacred Heart of Jesus as patron. Today the parish carries forward the tradition of Cheongju's early parish community while also serving as the church responsible for the Cheongju Eupseong Martyr Shrine. Diocesan shrine information explains that several martyrdom sites and a place of faith witness in and around the old Cheongju fortress are connected with the parish's pastoral territory, and a relic of Blessed Paul Oh Ban-ji is enshrined in the church altar.

The church building itself is also an important part of the region's Catholic heritage. Chungbuk Archivium describes the present church as a representative modern Catholic building in Cheongju dating from 1963 and records its registration as a Chungcheongbuk-do Registered Cultural Heritage in 2025. Parish worship, pilgrimage in memory of the martyrs, and the preservation of 1960s church architecture thus overlap in a single place. Ordinary parishioners and pilgrims still use the same sacred space, naturally combining the functions of a local parish and a center of martyr remembrance.