Sinryong Church

History & origins

Catholic life in the Gaeryeong area began long before Sinryong Parish itself was established. According to a Catholic Peace Newspaper account based on church historical materials, Father Alexius Kim Seong-hak, assigned to Gimcheon Parish in 1901, celebrated Mass in the sarangchae of John Choi Seok-yeong, a Catholic resident of Sinryong-ri in Gaeryeong-myeon. This marked a major step in the evangelization of the area, and Catholic communities subsequently took root in several villages.

The mission stations that now belong to Sinryong Parish were established one after another in the latter half of the twentieth century. Sinryong mission station began in 1961. Gaeryeong mission station was established in 1962, with its chapel built in September of that year. Gammun mission station was established in 1970, and a chapel was completed in June 1972 with support from benefactors in Germany. For many years these mission communities sustained Catholic life in their villages under parishes in the Gimcheon area.

The communities centered on these three mission stations were brought together in the newly established Sinryong Parish on November 24, 2000. Gaeryeong and Gammun remained mission stations within the new parish, preserving their local identities while becoming part of the parish structure. Archdiocesan records state that Sinryong church was dedicated in 2002, showing that the new parish soon acquired a central place of worship of its own.

A chrysanthemum festival began in 2003, the year after the church dedication. In a 2014 homily for the twelfth festival, the Archbishop noted that it had become an event shared not only by parishioners but also by local residents. Sinryong’s history therefore shows how older village missions and mission stations were gathered into a parish and then developed further as a community engaging its surrounding region.