Guryong Mission Station

History & origins

The roots of Guryong Mission Station are connected with Catholics who moved into the mountains while fleeing persecution. The Archdiocese of Daegu records that Peter Gim Yeong-je, who had been arrested and later released during the Byeongin Persecution, came to this area and lived here for about three years. A Catholic community subsequently developed around Guryong, and Father Robert’s pastoral report of 1887 already recorded sixty Catholics at the mission station.

In 1921, Bishop Florian Demange designated the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome as the patronal reference for the community, consecrated Guryong as a quasi-parish, and celebrated Mass there. This indicates that the mountain Catholic village had become more than an informal gathering and was recognized as a distinct pastoral unit within the diocese. Diocesan records also state that Catholics remained at the mission station during the Korean War; in 1952 armed guerrillas entered and fired shots, but no members of the community were injured.

Parish jurisdiction changed over time. Official records list Yongpyeong, Hayang, Geumho, and Jain parishes in succession before Guryong came under Yongseong Parish in 1995. In November 1997, Archbishop Yi Mun-hui celebrated Mass for the renovation of the mission station, marking another renewal of the historic community’s physical space.

Efforts also continued to preserve the memory of this old Catholic village as a heritage site of faith. Yongseong Parish formed a committee for the project in 2015, and after construction work in 2018 Guryong Mission Station was restored as a Catholic faith heritage site. In November that year Archbishop Thaddeus Cho Hwan-kil celebrated a blessing Mass, and the renewed complex included the mission station, a small museum, and a retreat house. This restoration connects the earlier community with present-day pilgrimage, and the history of Guryong runs from the movement of Catholics during persecution, through a documented nineteenth-century Catholic village, a period as a quasi-parish, wartime endurance, changes of jurisdiction, and renovation. The persistence of this small mountain community through repeated historical changes is itself the reason the site is remembered today as part of the Archdiocese’s heritage of faith.