Daeryul Mission

History & origins

The documented beginnings of the Catholic community in Daeryul-ri can be traced to the 1970s. According to a Catholic Peace Broadcasting and Peace Newspaper feature on the mission station, around 1974 there were about six Catholics in the village, and evangelization and catechesis developed around this small group. Before there was a separate mission-station building, the faithful maintained their community through prayer services and common prayer in private homes.

As the community grew, the number of baptized Catholics had reached about fifty by around 1979. The faithful secured roughly 410 square meters of land and constructed a cement-brick building of about 69 square meters. Records note that parishioners worked on the project with the help of professional carpenters, showing that the building was not simply provided to them but was created through the community's own effort. Materials on Yesan Parish likewise place the construction of Daeryul Mission Station in 1979.

Although the population and composition of the rural Catholic community have changed over time, the building erected in that period has remained a place of prayer and gathering for Catholics in Daeryul-ri. The history of Daeryul Mission Station is therefore marked less by large institutional changes than by the gradual growth of a small group that moved from house gatherings to building and sustaining a shared place of faith.