Weekly Mass Schedule
Korean
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About this place
Yongmun Catholic Church is one of the long-established parishes of the Diocese of Suwon and is also a pilgrimage historic site designated by the diocese. It continues the tradition of the first parish established in the Yangpyeong area, serving both as an active parish for the ordinary liturgical and pastoral life of local Catholics and as a place that remembers the faith of the early Catholic villages.
The Diocese of Suwon regards Yongmun as an old center of Catholic life in eastern Gyeonggi and also emphasizes its historical role in linking Catholic communities in the eastern part of the Suwon Diocese with the area toward the Diocese of Wonju. Today, Yongmun is both the living church in which the parish community celebrates Mass and the sacraments and a pilgrimage place where the lives of earlier Catholics can be remembered.
History & origins
The background of Yongmun Parish lies in the Catholic villages that were re-formed in the mountain areas of eastern Gyeonggi and western Gangwon after the Byeongin Persecution. After missionaries began to re-enter Korea from 1876, scattered communities were rebuilt, and several mission stations took root in the Yanggeun and Jipyeong areas. In 1891, Bishop Gustave Mutel’s diary recorded the Toechimi Catholic village in Yongmun-myeon as a large mission station of about fifty households and two hundred Catholics.
Church statistics from 1904 recorded 366 Catholics in five mission stations in the Yangpyeong area: Toechimi, Origol, Neungmal, Galgogae, and Muneomi. Building on these communities, Bishop Mutel appointed Father Joseph Joset on March 5, 1908, to care for Yanggeun and the surrounding area and stationed him at the Toechimi mission station. Yongmun Parish was established that year. The Diocese of Suwon describes it as the fifth parish established in the territory that now forms the diocese.
Yongmun Parish went on to serve for many years as a center of evangelization in eastern Gyeonggi and as a pastoral home for Catholics across Yangpyeong. The fact that Catholic villages re-established in mountain areas after persecution developed into a formal parish makes its history a record both of the rebuilding of Catholic communities and of the gradual establishment of local pastoral life.
On November 29, 2020, the Diocese of Suwon proclaimed Yongmun Catholic Church a pilgrimage historic site together with Wangnim, Hauhyeon, and Anseong Catholic churches. The designation formally added to its ordinary parish role the meaning of a place where pilgrims can remember and meditate on the faith heritage of the persecution era and the early Catholic villages.
Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia
Yongmun Catholic Church: history and architecture
Read about the place's history, architecture, people, and events in the Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia.
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Building information
- Passenger elevators: 1
- 3 above-ground floors · 1 below-ground floors
- Approved for use in 2020
- Total floor area: 994㎡
Building-register record · · Source
Accessibility information
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Sources and updates
- Information Status
- Official
- Source
- Diocese source
- Data freshness
- Fresh
- Last updated
- Source
- Francisco Diary
Diocese
Suwon Diocese (Diocese of Suwon)
Official website: http://www.casuwon.or.kr
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