서교동 성당

History & origins

The predecessor of Seogyo-dong Parish was Yanghwajin Parish, which shared its site and history with Jeoldusan Martyrs’ Shrine. A new parish community was formed in 1967 by separation from Ahyeon-dong Parish and was closely connected with the Jeoldusan memorial complex developed around the centenary of the Byeongin Persecution. The current Catholic directory and the Encyclopedia of Korean Catholicism differ on the exact month and day of foundation, so the narrative uses only the year 1967, on which both agree.

As the parish covered a broad area and the number of pilgrims visiting the martyrs’ memorial increased, the need to separate the functions of the shrine and the territorial parish became more pressing. Even after Seongsan-dong Parish was separated in 1981, the issue remained, and the present site in Seogyo-dong was purchased in 1982. In February 1983 the memorial shrine and the parish were formally separated, and the parish was renamed Seogyo-dong.

Construction of the new church began in March 1983, and the dedication was held in November of the same year. As the community stabilized, additional nearby property was secured, and in 1993 a complex including an education center, rectory, and convent was completed. A record from 1992 also notes the introduction of a Mass using traditional Korean music as an effort toward liturgical inculturation.

The history of Seogyo-dong is therefore the story of a community that began as the parish associated with a martyr shrine, separated the shrine’s pilgrimage function from the pastoral care of local Catholics, and took root again as an independent urban parish near Hongdae. Its 50th-anniversary Mass in 2017 was celebrated at Jeoldusan Martyrs’ Shrine, showing that the present parish continues to remember its Yanghwajin and Jeoldusan roots. This separation did not sever the parish’s relationship with Jeoldusan; rather, it reorganized the two communities so that the pilgrimage function of the shrine and the pastoral function of the territorial parish could each become clearer. The parish’s later celebration of anniversary liturgies at Jeoldusan shows that the historical continuity between the two places has been maintained.