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About this place
Docheok Catholic Church is a parish of the Gwangju District in the Second Vicariate of the Diocese of Suwon. It is the local Catholic community for the Docheok-myeon area of Gwangju, centered on the Mass and the sacraments. Its patron is Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, Korea’s first priest and a martyr, linking the parish closely with the missionary and martyr tradition of the Korean Church.
The Docheok area has a history of rural evangelization in which numerous village mission stations were formed. The present parish carries forward the tradition of these once-scattered communities, bringing local Catholics together for liturgy, sacramental life, catechesis, and parish activities.
Because the parish is dedicated to Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, the Diocese of Suwon included Docheok among the designated pilgrimage churches for the jubilee marking the 200th anniversary of his birth. It is therefore both a local parish and a place where Catholics remember Korea’s first priest and reflect on his missionary spirit.
History & origins
Docheok Parish was established on December 16, 1977, after being separated from Gwangju Parish. At the time, numerous village mission stations were scattered across the Docheok area. The Catholic Encyclopedia of Korea records that the new parish initially had fourteen mission stations, including communities in Nogok-ri, Yujeong-ri, Sangnim, and Gungdeul. The creation of the parish brought Catholics across a wide rural territory into a single independent pastoral community.
Saint Andrew Kim Taegon was chosen as patron from the beginning. Dedicating the parish to Korea’s first priest and martyr connected the area’s older Catholic village and missionary traditions with the spiritual identity of the new parish. Although Docheok once served a network of many mission stations, the current Korean Catholic Directory records no separate mission stations under the parish, showing how the local Church structure has changed over time.
In 2021, during the jubilee marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, the Diocese of Suwon designated Docheok as one of the pilgrimage churches associated with parishes under his patronage. The event brought renewed diocesan attention to a patronal devotion that had been present since the parish’s establishment.
The history of Docheok Parish therefore traces a movement from a rural missionary structure serving many scattered village communities to the present form of a single parish community. Its early network of mission stations and its devotion to Saint Andrew Kim Taegon remain central elements in understanding the parish’s historical character.
Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia
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Suwon Diocese (Diocese of Suwon)
Official website: http://www.casuwon.or.kr
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