Masan Mission Station

History & origins

The Catholic community in the Masan area of Seocheon began to take shape around 1940 when evangelization started in Sinjang-ri. According to the diocesan weekly bulletin, about eighty Catholics gathered at the home of Joseph Na Sang-jik for prayer and faith life. Before a separate mission-station building existed, a parishioner’s home therefore served as the center of the community.

Community activity was interrupted for a time by the Korean War, but gatherings resumed in 1956 under the leadership of Michael Na Yong-ju. From 1962, a missionary sister was assigned for a period and assisted with religious formation and community life. This stage shows how the mission community was reorganized and maintained despite the disruption of war and the difficulties of a rural setting.

With land offered by Catholics and assistance from the diocese, the community eventually built a mission-station chapel, which was blessed on September 21, 1967, by Bishop Peter Hwang Min-seong. The building then served for many years as the place for liturgy and gatherings for Catholics in the Masan area. Its exterior was renovated in 2003 to maintain the facility.

This history shows that Masan did not begin as an independent parish but as a rural faith community that first gathered in a Catholic household, recovered after wartime disruption, and eventually established its own mission-station building. Its present relationship under Hansan Parish continues that mission-station tradition.