Daejin Catholic Church

History & origins

Daejin was not an independent parish from the beginning. Before a parish was established in Sokcho, pastoral responsibility for Goseong County belonged to Yangyang Parish. When Sokcho Parish was established in October 1952, all of Goseong County came under it, and after Ganseong Parish was separated and established in August 1958, the Daejin area came under Ganseong Parish.

In October 1959, Fr. Gerald Eom, the first pastor of Ganseong Parish, built a roughly twenty-pyeong wood-and-metal-sheet chapel on the present site with support from the Diocese of Chuncheon. Daejin Mission Station was established there on November 1, 1959, with 115 Catholics recorded at the time.

When Geojin Parish was established in August 1976, Daejin Mission Station was transferred from Ganseong Parish to Geojin Parish. The old mission-station building was demolished and the present building was erected in 1977, and in 1998 the exterior of the prefabricated structure was finished with red brick.

After more than half a century as a mission station, the community was separated from Geojin Parish and elevated to Daejin St. Charles Cho Shin-chol Parish on March 1, 2012. The Catholic community of Hyeonnae-myeon thus gained the pastoral structure of an independent parish.