Eunjeom Mission Station

History & origins

The beginnings of Eunjeom Mission Station are linked to Lee Yeong-gyu, a resident of Eunjeom village who embraced the Catholic faith while serving in the military in the 1950s and later returned home. He shared the faith with his family and neighbors, and several residents of Eunjeom began meeting in a private home for Catholic prayer. The movement spread to nearby Mulgeon village, where the community grew to about ten local Catholics gathering together.

In 1962, the Catholics of the two villages who had been meeting in homes acquired the present mission-station site and built a chapel, thereby establishing Eunjeom Mission Station. The National Folk Museum study notes that a mission station had been established in Namhae-eup in 1958 and was raised to Namhae Parish in 1960, placing Eunjeom’s acquisition of its own worship space relatively early in the development of the local Catholic community.

After many years the original mission building deteriorated, with problems such as roof leaks creating a need for reconstruction. Parishioners raised building funds through shared efforts, including producing and selling anchovy fish sauce, and continued preparing to preserve their mission station. This process shows that the mission station was not merely a building but a community space sustained by the cooperation of local Catholics.

The present building was reconstructed in 2007, and on April 16 of that year a dedication ceremony was celebrated with a bishop present. From a household community in the 1950s through the establishment of a chapel and later reconstruction, the history of Eunjeom Mission Station shows how lay Catholics in small Namhae villages transmitted the faith and created and maintained their own communal place of worship.