Sanddal Mission Station

History & origins

According to the local history published by Geoje City, the Catholic community on Sandal Island began with the conversion of one resident in the 1950s. Susanna Kim Ttoaji of Sandal 1-gu entered the Catholic Church around February 1954. Together with two other women from the village, she crossed to the mainland every Saturday evening in a rowboat, then walked about ten ri to Geoje Catholic Church, stayed there overnight, attended Sunday Mass the next day, and returned to the island by boat.

Susanna Kim was baptized in 1955. Afterward, the believers rented or set aside a single room on the island where they could gather in the evening for mission-station prayers. Before there was a separate church building, the Catholics thus shared ordinary living space for common prayer. This marked a transition from a faith life centered almost entirely on travel to the parish church toward a regular local community on the island itself.

As the community became established, a church building was finally prepared and a dedication ceremony for the mission station was held on May 27, 1966. Susanna Kim served as the first mission-station leader, and later leaders continued the community. Sandal remains listed in the current Catholic directory, allowing its history to be traced from a handful of believers who crossed the sea for Mass in the 1950s, through the creation of a permanent mission space in 1966, to the continuing Catholic community of the present day.