고금 성당

Name: 고금 성당
Address: 전라남도 완도군 고금면 고금로 639, KR
Telephone: (061)555-2020

Parish

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Official source

About this place

Gogeum Catholic Church is a parish church of the Archdiocese of Gwangju in Gogeum-myeon, Wando County, in the archdiocese's southwestern region. The Catholic Church Directory in Korea records the parish as established on January 17, 2019 and identifies Gangjin Parish as its mother parish. The archdiocese's own parish record confirms the same location and names St. Anselm as the patron.

As a comparatively recent parish, Gogeum serves as the local Catholic community's center for Mass, the sacraments, and shared parish life. Its establishment as an independent parish shows that the Catholic community of the area came to hold a more distinct place within the archdiocese's pastoral structure.

The church is therefore best understood less as an old historic monument than as a modern parish established to sustain ordinary Catholic life in an island community. Its historical relationship with Gangjin Parish and its patronage under St. Anselm are important contexts for understanding its present Catholic identity.

Official source

History & origins

The Catholic community of Gogeumdo began as a mission community in 1987, when Fr. Kim Seo-gyu of Gangjin Parish celebrated the first Mass in the home of Francis Yi Jin-yeong in Yeondong. Catholic mission on the island continued, and the community spent many years preparing to build a church of its own.

Construction of a new mission church began in December 2013 and was completed about five months later. On May 17, 2014, Archbishop Kim Hee-jung dedicated the new church. At that time Gogeum remained a mission station of Gangjin Parish and served as a base for evangelization on Gogeumdo and nearby islands.

The mission community was separated from Gangjin Parish and established as Gogeum Parish on January 17, 2019. The history of the present parish therefore runs from a home Mass in 1987, through the building of a mission church, to the eventual formation of an independent island parish.