암사동 성당

History & origins

The origins of Amsa-dong Parish can be traced to the rapid increase in Catholics under Cheonho Parish as apartment development and population growth transformed the Gangdong area in the late 1970s. Catholic sources record that an Amsa mission station of Cheonho Parish was established in November 1980 and that the community became an independent parish in January 1981. On the foundation of this community, an independent parish was established in January 1981.

The new parish soon began securing a permanent church. Land for the church was purchased in 1982, and in 1983 the groundbreaking and the first Mass in the new church followed. The project was completed, and on May 19, 1985, the church was dedicated in a ceremony presided over by Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan. In only a few years, a community that had begun as a mission station had developed into an independent parish with its own church.

As the Catholic population around Amsa continued to grow, new parishes were separated from it. The parish’s official chronology records the separation of Godeok Parish in 1986 and Myeongil Parish in 1987. Repairs to the church and further community development followed, and Amsa-dong Parish has continued its history as a Catholic community born amid the rapid urbanization of Gangdong and connected with the formation of neighboring parishes.