Nuan Catholic Church

History & origins

The roots of Noan Parish reach back to a Catholic community that formed around Yangcheon-ri in the late nineteenth century. According to the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia, Catholicism became known among local residents through Jeong Rak, John, who settled in Hampyeong in 1894, and several people who studied the faith were baptized in 1900. The Gyeryang mission community developed around them, and priests from Mokpo Parish began visiting in 1903. After efforts to establish a parish at several possible sites, Gyeryang Mission Station was raised to Gyeryang Parish in 1908.

The parish secured church land and built a cruciform thatched-roof church in 1910. In 1927 a brick building was enlarged and completed as a Western-style church, forming the architectural basis of the building that survives as heritage today. The parish separated the Gwangju Bukdong area in 1933 and the Naju area in 1935 to form new parishes; with the separation of Naju Parish, the name was changed from Gyeryang Parish to Noan Parish.

The parish’s work was not limited to liturgical life inside the church. Educational initiatives, including a learning institute and a kindergarten, were undertaken in the 1930s and 1940s. After the Korean War, growth in the Catholic population led to an enlargement of the church in 1957. Through this expansion the building took on its present Latin-cross plan, while religious communities and secondary educational facilities also supported pastoral and educational work in the area.

The church building, shaped principally in 1927 and enlarged in 1957, was registered as a National Registered Cultural Heritage in 2002. The history of Noan thus links the growth of a mission community into a parish, the founding of other parishes from it, its participation in rural education and pastoral care, and the preservation of those layers of history in a modern Catholic church building that remains standing today.