Duchon Mission Station

History & origins

According to the official records of the Diocese of Chuncheon, Duchon Mission Station was established on October 30, 1958. It developed as a mission-station community where Catholics in Duchon-myeon, Hongcheon County, could pray together and continue their life of faith without having to travel the full distance to a parish church. Today it is under the pastoral care of Seongsan Parish of the Holy Cross of Calvary.

Seongsan Parish was raised from a mission station under Hongcheon Parish to an independent parish in 1976 and has since served several mission stations in eastern Hongcheon. Current diocesan information links Duchon with mission stations such as Cheoljeong, Yeongnae, Naechon, and Songjeong under Seongsan Parish. The publicly available diocesan records, however, do not state exactly when Duchon came under Seongsan's jurisdiction, so that date cannot be specified without further evidence.

On March 2-3, 2019, blessing ceremonies were held for five mission stations under Seongsan Parish, and Duchon was among them. Presided over by Bishop Lucas Kim Woon-hoe and attended by parish and mission-station members, the event became an occasion to bless again a place that had long sustained the local Catholic community. The history of Duchon is therefore best understood not through a long institutional chronology but through the continuity of mission-station ministry and the efforts of local Catholics to preserve a small community of faith.