광영동 성당

History & origins

The Catholic community in Gwangyeong-dong took shape in the 1980s as the population of the area grew rapidly with the development of the Gwangyang steelworks. According to the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia, the community began on March 5, 1983, when about twenty Catholics celebrated mission-station Mass in a rented unit of Dongbaek Apartments.

Continued development made the original meeting arrangements difficult to maintain, and a church construction committee was formed in 1987. After land acquisition and preparations for construction, the Gwangyeong-dong mission was separated from Gwangyang Parish and elevated to an independent parish on February 7, 1990. A Mass marking the start of church construction was celebrated on April 29 of that year, and the new church was completed on July 9, giving the community a permanent place of worship.

In reporting the parish’s twentieth anniversary in 2010, the Archdiocese of Gwangju again noted the community’s growth alongside the development of the Gwangyang steelworks. The history of Gwangyeong-dong Parish thus reflects how a small mission community in a newly industrializing district grew into a parish with its own church.