수유1동 성당

History & origins

The background to Suyu 1-dong Catholic Church was the expansion of residential areas around the so-called Ppallaetgol and the foothills of Bukhansan in northern Suyu-dong during the late 1970s. The area belonged to Suyu-dong Parish, but growing population and Catholic numbers created a need for a closer pastoral center. The Archdiocese of Seoul separated part of the territory and established Suyu 1-dong Parish on August 16, 1983. The new parish took St. Andrew Kim Taegon as its patron and began community life in a building on the present site transferred from Suyu-dong Parish for use as a temporary church.

The early community worked not only to secure worship space but also to develop systematic faith formation. The Catholic Encyclopedia records that the parish prepared materials for family Bible study and used them in parish formation. As the number of Catholics grew, construction of a new church began in March 1987, and a three-story church with a basement was completed in April 1989. While the church was being built, the parish opened an “Aedeokbang” charitable room in 1987 to assist neighbors in need; it later added meeting and catechetical spaces and carried out stained-glass work in 1995. The parish's growth therefore combined the expansion of worship space with faith formation and care for neighbors.

From September 1999, records show the parish taking responsibility for a district free-meal center known as “Peter's House,” extending pastoral activity beyond the church walls to care for neighbors. In 2020, as the Church prepared the jubilee for the bicentenary of St. Andrew Kim's birth, Suyu 1-dong was designated as an Archdiocesan jubilee pilgrimage church. The broad line of its history is therefore that of a community separated in 1983 for closer neighborhood ministry and subsequently rooted through education, social service, and devotion to a Korean martyr saint. The jubilee designation was more than a one-time event: it gave the parish an opportunity to share the spirituality of its patron saint with the wider Archdiocese.