Gyo-dong Cathedral

History & origins

The older roots of Catholic life in the Sokcho area are connected with the Ssari-jae Catholic village, formed by believers who had taken refuge there during the Byeongin Persecution. In 1921 Fr. Choi Mun-sik arrived and Ssari-jae became a parish, but after he later moved the parish to Seomun-ri in Yangyang, the Ssari-jae community reverted to mission-station status.

After the Korean War, the Catholic population of the Sokcho area increased, and during the 1960s the commercial and residential center of life shifted toward Jungang-dong. The existing Sokcho Parish could no longer easily accommodate the growing number of parishioners. Against this background, Gyodong Parish was established on December 30, 1966, after being separated from Sokcho Parish, today’s Dongmyeong-dong Parish.

Retired Bishop Thomas Quinlan played a major role in the construction of the church. According to the diocesan history, he stayed at the construction site and guided the work, and the church was designed according to his wishes in the form of a dove spreading its wings and flying peacefully toward the East Sea. The resulting parish came to connect the rapidly growing postwar urban Catholic community of Sokcho with the deeper history of faith in the Yeongbuk region.