Jangpyeong Catholic Church

History & origins

The Catholic community in Jangpyeong traces its roots to the early twentieth century. According to the Diocese of Masan, an important beginning came in 1916 when a Catholic named Matthew Lee settled in Jindeul, the old name for Jangpyeong, and carried out evangelization. From the late 1920s the number of newly baptized Catholics increased, and by 1934 the community had grown to more than sixty believers. The home of Paul Kim was then arranged as a mission station and recognized as an independent station. The Jangpyeong community continued its faith life through later changes in parish jurisdiction in the Geoje area.

After the Korean War, a new mission chapel was built in 1952 and evangelization continued. As the pastoral structure of the area changed, however, the Jangpyeong mission station was sold in 1971 and local Catholics became part of the newly established Gohyeon mission community. For a time there was no independent church in Jangpyeong, but the community’s memory and faith life continued through Gohyeon.

A turning point came in 1991, when a benefactor donated a religious site on reclaimed land in Jangpyeong to the Church. A committee for the construction of a new church was organized, and the building begun in July 1993 was completed the following year. On April 12, 1994, the church was dedicated and Jangpyeong began as a parish separated from Gohyeon. Parishioners directly helped raise construction funds, including by selling local products, making their participation a distinctive part of the transition from an old mission community to an independent parish.

The parish continued to strengthen its foundations after its establishment. Diocesan records state that missionary sisters from the Olivetan Benedictine Sisters of Busan were assigned in 1998, and that adjacent land was later purchased to compensate for the limited parish site and provide parking space. Beginning as a community of nine districts when it separated from Gohyeon, Jangpyeong retained the memory of its mission-station years while expanding its parish structure in step with the growth of the surrounding residential and industrial area.