Donji Gongsu

History & origins

The Catholic community at Donji began to take shape around 1977. Among the people who moved to the reclaimed land from places such as Sannae in Jeongeup, Imsil, Sintaein, Dongmak, and Hamyeol were Catholic families, but at first only four baptized households lived there. With no dedicated mission building, they took turns gathering in private homes for services and continued evangelization alongside their farm work.

In 1986, a building donated by the mission-station president gave the community its first stable meeting place. The community then grew through catechesis, baptisms, and Legion of Mary activity. Seventeen people, including children, were baptized in 1988; the “Queen of the Rosary” praesidium was established in March 1989; and another forty-five people were baptized in 1993.

By 1996 the community had grown to about 120 Catholics in sixty-eight households, and a new chapel was built as part of the seventieth-anniversary projects of Buan Parish. Local Catholics sold seaweed and salted seafood, donated income earned at a seaweed factory, received outside support, and contributed their own labor to the construction. Bishop Vincent Lee Byung-ho presided at the dedication of the new chapel on July 23 of that year. Donji’s history thus records how a small community of settlers on reclaimed land built a mission station through lay prayer, work, and mutual support.