Ganhyeon Mission Chapel

History & origins

The exact date when Catholic faith first reached Ganhyeon village is not known. A Catholic Peace Newspaper investigation, however, finds evidence of Catholics living there during the Japanese colonial period. After liberation, Maria Magdalena An Jeong-hui traveled through neighboring villages for her work, distributing catechetical and Catholic books and engaging in evangelization. Her efforts helped form a group of catechumens, and in February 1958 a priest from Hakseong-dong Parish celebrated the Mass establishing the mission station in the home of a Catholic family, marking the effective beginning of the Ganhyeon community.

As the number of Catholics grew, private homes were no longer sufficient for community gatherings. With donations from local Catholics and support from the diocese, land and a thatched house in Ganhyeon-ri were purchased and used as the mission station. In 1980 the old thatched mission house was sold and land was acquired at the present site. The community, however, did not yet have the means to construct a building and for a considerable period continued mission devotions in the home of the mission leader. It regained a dedicated building in 1998, when a single-story brick structure was completed and blessed on December 19 of that year.

The mission station's parish jurisdiction later changed with the reorganization of local pastoral structures. When Seowonju Parish was established in 2018, Ganhyeon moved from Hakseong-dong Parish to the new parish, and in 2019 its chapel was enlarged and renovated into a form close to the present one. The history of Ganhyeon is the story of a small community that began through personal evangelization and meetings in Catholic homes, acquired land and buildings together, endured long periods without a dedicated chapel, and eventually secured a stable worship space. This accumulated history forms the foundation of the present Ganhyeon community within Seowonju Parish.