Gimcheon Hwanggeum Church

History & origins

The Catholic history of the Gimcheon area reaches back well before the establishment of the parish to records from the period of persecution. Citing Sahak Jingui, the Archdiocese of Daegu notes that in 1801 Park Chun-san was exiled to Gimsan-eup because of his Catholic faith, while around the same time Hyeon Gye-tak of Dongnae was exiled to Jeungsan in the Gimsan area for concealing the fact that his brother was a Catholic. As persecutions continued, Catholics from Chungcheong and Jeolla moved into mountainous districts, where communities such as Majam, Meokbangi, and Jangjateo were formed.

Against this background, Gimcheon Parish, today's Gimcheon Hwanggeum Parish, was established on May 27, 1901. Archdiocesan sources describe it as the third-oldest parish in the history of the local Church after Daegu Church, now Gyesan Cathedral, and Gasil Church. The first pastor, Father Alexius Kim Seong-hak, began the parish in a small thatched house at Jarabatgol in Hwanggeum-dong and, in the same year as his arrival, opened Seongui School on the parish grounds, linking the formation of the Catholic community with education.

As the community grew, the original space soon became too small. A tiled-roof church was built and dedicated in 1907, and in 1934 a new red-brick Gothic church was erected. This older church, which remains today, is an important heritage site showing the growth of the Gimcheon parish and the life of its Catholics in the first half of the twentieth century. In a homily for the parish's 120th anniversary, the Archdiocese of Daegu also emphasized the need to preserve this historic church.

The parish's later history is also connected with notable figures in the Korean Church. Father Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, who would later become a cardinal, served here as a priest, and on May 27, 2000, a centenary memorial church was completed opposite the old church and dedicated in a liturgy presided over by Cardinal Kim. The memory of Catholic villages formed under persecution thus continued through parish foundation, education, church construction, and into today's parish and pilgrimage site.