Okjong Mission

History & origins

The Catholic community in Okjong developed in connection with a period when there was no nearby parish church and local Catholics had to travel a considerable distance to attend Mass. A local cultural-history source for Hadong explains that Catholics in Okjong once went as far as Okbong-dong Catholic Church in Jinju for Sunday Mass, and that Okbong-dong Parish established a mission station in the Okjong area to reduce this difficulty. The source does not provide a verifiable exact year for the establishment of the mission station.

As the parish structure of the Hadong region later became more differentiated, Okjong’s pastoral relationship was reorganized within the local parish network. Current official records of the Diocese of Masan identify Okjong Mission Station as being under Jingyo Parish. The earlier link with Okbong-dong shows the context of the mission station’s beginnings in regional evangelization, while its present relationship with Jingyo reflects later changes in pastoral jurisdiction.

In 2025 the bishop of the Diocese of Masan personally visited Okjong Mission Station while checking areas affected by wildfires and met the parish priest and the local mission-station community. The record shows that the mission station is not merely a remnant of an older missionary period but continues within the pastoral care of the parish and diocese. Because no primary source fixing the exact foundation year was found, no date has been conjectured; the history is limited to the verified origin and the documented development of its pastoral relationships.