Mancheon Church

History & origins

Mancheon Parish of St. Pio of Pietrelcina was established on September 5, 2014, by separation from Hupyeong-dong Parish. According to the diocesan history, its territory was organized around parts of Hupyeong 1-dong and Hupyeong 3-dong together with the Dong-myeon area, and it began with 328 households and 856 Catholics. The division took place as the residential areas on the eastern side of Chuncheon expanded and pastoral needs could no longer be served as effectively by the existing parish structure alone.

The new parish first erected a prefabricated church, which was dedicated on September 21, 2014, in a liturgy presided over by Bishop Kim Woon-hoe. At its foundation the parish patron was Blessed Leo Hong In, but on November 5, 2015, the patron was changed to St. Pio of Pietrelcina. The inclusion of St. Pio in the parish’s present official name reflects that change.

The history of Mancheon is therefore less a story of an old mission station gradually becoming a parish than an example of a new community created in response to changing urban settlement and Catholic population patterns. Beginning community life in a temporary church and then establishing its patronal identity illustrates the early process through which the new parish formed its liturgical and communal character.