Yongmun Catholic Church

Overview

Yongmun Church is a church in Yongmun-myeon, Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do, belonging to the Diocese of Suwon. Separated and established in March 1908 from Wondong Parish of the Diocese of Wonju, it is the parish introduced by the Catholic newspaper as the 5 parish of the diocese, and it was proclaimed a pilgrimage shrine of the Diocese of Suwon in November 2020. Its patron is Our Lady of the Rosary, the Blessed Virgin Mary (the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia records her as Queen of the Rosary).

History

〔The Catholic village that fired pottery〕 According to the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia, Catholic believers began to settle in the area centered on Yongmun-myeon after the Byeongin Persecution in 1866. Believers who fled into remote mountain areas to escape persecution made a living by firing earthenware here, including the family of Joseph Yi in Gyejeong-ri, Yangdong-myeon and Matthias Yi in Maryong-ri, Yongmun-myeon. Afterwards the Yangpyeong-gun area came under the jurisdiction of Pungsuwon Parish when it was established in 1887, and after Wonju Parish was established in 1896, Wonju Parish governed the area.

〔Establishment of the parish〕 According to the encyclopedia, as the number of believers in the Yangpyeong-gun area grew, Bishop G. Mutel entrusted the pastoral care of Yanggeun and nearby areas to Father J. Jaugey (Yang Suchun) on March 5, 1908. Father Jaugey took office in Toechon, Deokchon-ri, Yongmun-myeon and began his ministry, and soon purchased a church site at Neungmal in Dogok-ri, Galsan-myeon (now Yangpyeong-eup) in order to advance into Yangpyeong town. Father Bartholomew Yi Sang-hwa, who took office in June 1909, purchased a hanok in Deokdong village, Deokchon-ri instead of Toechon and oversaw 7 Catholic mission chapels, and the 3 pastor, Father James Son Seong-jae, sold the Deokdong church and purchased about 2,000 pyeong of land at 353 Maryong-ri (Manae), Yongmun-myeon, where he built a Chinese-style church and rectory. The name “Maryong-ri (Manae) Parish” dates from this time, and Father Son then governed Catholic mission chapels not only in Yangpyeong-gun but also in the Pocheon, Yanggu and Chuncheon areas of Gyeonggi-do.

〔Abolition and restoration〕 According to the encyclopedia, after Father Son died in November 1927, Father Peter Kim Yeong-geun, who took office as the 4 pastor, increased the flock from only 300 to more than 1,000 during 9 years through active evangelization. However, when the 7 pastor, Father Matthias O Yeon-hui, advanced into Yangpyeong town in 1943, the Maryong-ri parish was abolished and became a Catholic mission chapel of Yangpyeong Parish. The Maryong-ri church was half-destroyed by bombing during the Korean War, and believers remodeled the rectory for use as a church, while Father Paul Kim Jeong-jin of Yangpyeong Parish demolished the church walls in 1954 and reused them to build the Yangpyeong church. Father Kim then sold the Maryong-ri church site and purchased 15,330 pyeong of forest at San 10, Damun-ri, Yongmun-myeon, began construction of a new church in May 1955, and completed the church and rectory and held the blessing ceremony on October 7 of the following year. After the church was completed, Yongmun Parish was restored in April 1958 when Father Kim Yeong-geun was reappointed. Father Kim built a hall within the parish in 1961 and also built the hall of the Yeomul-ri Catholic mission chapel in Cheongun-myeon. In June 1964 Father Kim retired and, with no successor assigned, it again became a Catholic mission chapel of Yangpyeong Parish, then the parish was restored again in January 1967 when Father Augustine Yi Yun-seong took office. The encyclopedia’s list of successive pastors marks 1943–April 1958 and June 1964–January 1967 as periods under Yangpyeong Parish as a Catholic mission chapel.

〔After the 1960s〕 According to the encyclopedia, the parish invited the Sisters of the Holy Eucharist in November 1967 and held a joint lay conference with Anjung Parish in December 1971. In 1977 it expanded the Catholic mission chapel hall in Gyejeong-ri, Yangdong-myeon, and helped build Sangnokchon (in Seokgok-ri, Yangdong-myeon), a self-reliance village for Hansen’s disease patients. Around 1984, to rebuild the aging church, centered on the Marian Association, the Apostolic Society, the Legion of Mary and others, funds were raised by setting aside rice for the church, selling wild greens and farm products, and collecting waste paper and empty bottles, and the groundbreaking ceremony for a temporary church and rectory was held on April 29, 1987. Construction of the cathedral began in 1988 and was completed in 1990, and the dedication Mass for the new church was celebrated on October 11, 1992 after finishing the surrounding work. In February 1997 Yangdong Parish was separated as the number of believers grew, and in 2001 the hall of the Yongdu Catholic mission chapel was completed. The encyclopedia notes that as of 2002 the parish had adopted “youth education and revitalization of district and small-group communities” as its pastoral guideline.

〔The Yanggeun faith community and the pilgrimage shrine〕 According to the Catholic newspaper (2025), Yongmun Parish continues from the faithful community of Yanggeun, which can be called the cradle of the Korean Church. Yanggeun is the village where the Servant of God Ambrose Gwon Cheol-sin lived, and under his teaching gathered the faith ancestors who founded the early Korean Church, including the Servants of God John the Baptist Yi Byeok, Peter Yi Seung-hun and Ludovico Gonzaga Yi Jon-chang, and Blessed Luke Hong Nak-min and Paul Yun Yu-il. The Servant of God Francis Xavier Gwon Il-sin was the younger brother of Gwon Cheol-sin, and Blessed Sebastian Gwon Sang-mun was his nephew and adopted son. Beginning with the Sinhae Persecution in 1791 and passing through the Sinyu, Gihae and Byeongin persecutions, the believers of Yanggeun scattered to the mountain villages of Yongmun and formed Catholic villages deep in Mount Yongmun, and this Catholic village community led to Yongmun Parish, the 5 parish of the diocese in 1908. The diocese proclaimed Yongmun Church a “pilgrimage shrine of the Diocese of Suwon” in November 2020 and designated it a jubilee pilgrimage site in 2025 so that a jubilee indulgence can be received.

〔The first retreat〕 According to the Catholic newspaper, Yongmun is where the first retreat in the Korean Church took place. When Thomas Kim Beom-u was exiled and Yi Byeok, Yi Seung-hun and others suffered persecution from their clans after the Eulsa Chujo Jeokbal incident in 1785, when the Myeongnye-bang believers’ gathering was discovered, and the Church lost its center, Gwon Il-sin climbed Mount Yongmun with Justin Jo Dong-seom and made an eight-day silent retreat and then worked again to rebuild the Church. The newspaper reports that Father Charles Dallet described this retreat in the “History of the Catholic Church in Korea” as eight days devoted only to prayer and meditation without exchanging a single word.

〔Successive pastors and statistics〕 The successive pastors recorded in the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia are the first Father Joseph J. Jaugey (Yang Suchun) (1908.3–1909.1), the 2 Father Bartholomew Yi Sang-hwa (1909.6–1911.6), the 3 Father James Son Seong-jae (1911.6–1927.11), the 4 Father Peter Kim Yeong-geun (1927.11–1936.9), the 5 Father Ludovico Kim Gyeong-min (1936.9–1937.8), the 6 Father Paul Im Jong-gu (1937.8–1940.7), the 7 Father Matthias O Yeon-hui (1940.7–1943), the 8 Father Kim Yeong-geun (1958.4–1964.6), the 9 Father Augustine Yi Yun-seong (1967.1–1970.7), the 10 Father Joseph Jeong Ji-ung (1970.7–1975.4), the 11 Father Maurizio Bong Jun-seok (1975.4–1976.3), the 12 Father Francis Kim Jeong-won (1976.3–1981.6), the 13 Father Peter Bae Yeong-seop (1981.6–1984.9), the 14 Father Anthony Yi Yeong-bae (1984.9–1987.2), the 15 Father Paul Jeong Yeong-sik (1987.2–1988.2), the 16 Father James Park Hyeon-bae (1988.2–1993.2), the 17 Father Peter Hong Myeong-ho (1993.2–1995.2), the 18 Father Matthew Yi Jeong-hui (1995.2–1997.2), the 19 Father Dominic U Jong-min (1997.2–2000.1), the 20 Father Francis Xavier Kim Sang-sun (2000.1–2001.1), and the 21 Father Joseph Jo Gyu-sik (2001.1–). The statistics are 1,173 in 1910, 1,528 in 1915, 1,739 in 1920, 1,508 in 1924, 1,455 in 1967, 1,505 in 1971, 1,618 in 1974, 1,736 in 1980, 1,992 in 1985, 1,888 in 1990, 1,953 in 1995, and 1,979 in 2000. The jurisdiction at that time covered all of Yongmun-myeon, Danwol-myeon and Cheongun-myeon and part of Jije-myeon, and the Catholic mission chapel under its jurisdiction was 1 in Cheongun.

Architecture and Space

According to the Catholic newspaper (2025), the church facade consists of a pair of yellow domes standing side by side like twins, 3 crosses erected on the roof between them, a statue of the Virgin Mary in a niche below the roof, tall vertical stained glass, and the brick exterior walls supporting them. On the glass windows on either side of the main entrance door are sacred paintings depicting portraits and episodes of the faith ancestors active in the early Korean Church.

On the 1 floor of the church, the “Yongmun Church History Exhibition Hall, Pilgrimage Shrine of the Diocese of Suwon” has been created. Visitors can see the history from the Cheonjinam study through the history of faith in the Yanggeun area, the persecutions and today’s Yongmun community, and devotional books and Mass vessels used by the faith ancestors are also on display (Catholic newspaper).

Beside the Marian garden there is a prayer room shaped like a kiln for firing earthenware or ceramics. It commemorates the history that the faith ancestors who fled into the mountains to escape persecution earned their living by firing and selling earthenware, and near Yongmun Church there is the Yogok (Yogol) village where there were earthenware kilns until 1985, and the church fence was also built using jars. Behind the church there is a Way of the Cross surrounded by forest on the hill (Catholic newspaper).

Related Places and Figures

• Wondong Parish (Diocese of Wonju): the mother parish from which Yongmun Parish was separated in 1908 (Korean Catholic Encyclopedia).
• Pungsuwon Parish, Wonju Parish and Yangpyeong Parish: the parishes that successively governed the Yongmun area, and after the Maryong-ri parish was abolished in 1943 it was for a time a Catholic mission chapel of Yangpyeong Parish (Korean Catholic Encyclopedia).
• Yangdong Parish: separated from Yongmun Parish in February 1997 (Korean Catholic Encyclopedia).
• Francis Xavier Gwon Il-sin and Justin Jo Dong-seom: early Church figures who made the eight-day silent retreat on Mount Yongmun (Catholic newspaper).

References and Sources

1. Korean Church History Research Institute, Korean Catholic Encyclopedia “Yongmun Parish.” The Catholic village and the parish establishment in 1908, the abolition and restoration of the Maryong-ri parish, the church blessing in 1956, the new church blessing in 1992, successive pastors, statistics.
   https://encyclopedia.catholic.or.kr/entry/4737
2. Catholic newspaper, “[Diocese of Suwon Church Pilgrimage] Yongmun Church” (2025.2.16). The Yanggeun faith community and the origin of the parish, proclamation as a pilgrimage shrine, church exterior and history exhibition hall, earthenware-kiln prayer room, the first retreat.
   https://www.catholictimes.org/article/20250210500113