Shinam Mission Station

History & origins

The Shinam community took shape at the end of 1961, when people affected by Hansen’s disease who had been living in a National Iksan Hospital-related facility moved to the Shinam and Biryong settlements in Yongji-myeon, Gimje. In March 1962, with the approval of Fr. Beom Seok-gyu (Matthias) of Yochon Parish, lay representatives established a mission station, beginning Catholic life in a small earthen house of about fifteen pyeong.

As the settlement became established, the mission-station building was gradually improved. In 1963 the community obtained a thatched building of about forty pyeong, and in 1966 it constructed a roughly fifty-pyeong structure with a sheet-metal roof, using recycled materials among other resources. The repeated effort of local Catholics to enlarge and improve their place of worship despite limited means became a defining feature of Shinam’s history.

The present church-like building was completed in 1983 and blessed on November 13 in a liturgy presided over by Bishop Park Jeong-il. During the 1980s a convent and educational facilities were also added, strengthening the community’s infrastructure. Although demographic decline and aging later changed the size of the community, Shinam Mission Station has continued under Sinpung Parish. Its history brings together the experience of a Hansen’s disease settlement, efforts toward self-reliance, and the way Catholics cared for one another while building a place of faith.