여의도동 성당

History & origins

The beginnings of Yeouido-dong Parish go back to 1971, when residents began moving into the newly built Yeouido Demonstration Apartments. Because there was no Catholic church on the island, local Catholics gathered in a clinic of St. Mary’s Hospital and celebrated their first community Mass there in December 1971. They then used temporary spaces and an apartment as a Catholic station, and in 1973 the Yeouido station was formally recognized under Yeongdeungpo Parish.

As the community grew, the station was raised to an independent parish on September 17, 1974. Parishioners raised funds for a church, began construction of the first building in 1975, and celebrated its dedication in January 1976 with Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan presiding. Continued residential development and growth in the number of Catholics soon created the need for more space, and in 1978 the center of parish life moved to the site where the church now stands.

A new church project was undertaken in the early 1980s. Construction began in 1982, and the new church was dedicated on April 28, 1984, again with Cardinal Kim presiding. This building established the basic form of the parish complex used today, while the community continued to grow with changes in Yeouido.

In 2024 the parish marked the 50th anniversary of its establishment by compiling a 50-year history and carrying out projects centered on prayer, mission and sharing. The anniversary work was not merely ceremonial: it preserved the memory of the temporary Catholic station, the first church, the move to the current site and the subsequent rebuilding so that later generations could understand how the community had taken shape. The progression from a small Mass community in a hospital clinic to an independent parish with its own church closely parallels the development of Yeouido itself as a new urban district. For that reason, the history of Yeouido-dong Parish is also a record of how a Catholic community formed within a rapidly changing city.