Hwanghwa-jeong Mission Station

History & origins

Both the Catholic Church directory in Korea and the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia record 1946 as the year Hwanghwajeong Mission Station was established. Catholic history in the broader Yeosan area, however, began much earlier. Catholics fleeing persecution formed villages of faith in and around Yeosan, and from the late nineteenth century onward a number of mission stations were established across the rural region.

Hwanghwajeong, established in 1946, was not from the beginning part of the present Yeosan Parish structure. Mission communities in the Yeosan area passed through the jurisdiction of several parishes, including Nabawi, Doejae, Sucheong, and Samnye, and came under Nabawi again from 1956. These changes reflect the way mission territories were adjusted when parish churches were few and transportation was difficult.

When Yeosan Parish was formally established in January 1959, Hwanghwajeong became one of its mission stations. Since then it has continued as a Catholic community in Yeonmu-eup, Chungcheongnam-do, linked pastorally to Yeosan Parish in the Diocese of Jeonju. Its history shows that the life of a mission station cannot be understood by civil boundaries alone, but through the network of Catholic villages, parishes, and mission communities formed after the persecutions.