Sinwa-dong Mission Station

History & origins

The formation of the Catholic community on Baengnyeongdo is closely tied to the island’s history of migration around liberation and the Korean War. Catholic Church sources report that believers who crossed the sea from Jangyeon in Hwanghae Province during the 1940s played an important part in forming the island community. In 1958 Father Yun Eul-su administered the first baptisms on Baengnyeongdo and then sent sisters of the Inbo Sacred Heart Sisters, the congregation he had founded.

Sinhwa-dong Mission Station is identified as one of the mission stations directly connected with this early evangelizing activity. From 1959, Maryknoll missionary Father Edward J. Moffett served as the first pastor of Baengnyeongdo Parish, and mission-station communities became established across the island. In the postwar period, when many refugees lived on Baengnyeongdo, the Church participated not only in pastoral ministry but also in helping local residents through international relief.

Sinhwa-dong Mission Station is reported to preserve a papal blessing dated November 29, 1969, sent by Pope Paul VI to Father Moffett and the mission-station community. This document is a concrete sign that the Sinhwa-dong community had already become an established part of the Catholic mission on Baengnyeongdo by that time.

Today Sinhwa-dong remains under Baengnyeongdo Parish and has recently been described as a mission station where the Legion of Mary is still active. The continuity of early evangelization, postwar island ministry, and present community life makes the mission station an important witness to the enduring Catholic history of Baengnyeongdo.