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About this place
Jangseong Parish is a Catholic parish in the Taebaek District of the Diocese of Wonju. It serves Jangseong-dong, Gumunso-dong, Cheoram-dong, part of Mungok-Sodo-dong in Taebaek, and part of Seokpo-myeon in Bonghwa County, North Gyeongsang Province. Its patron is St. Joseph the Worker, and the parish currently has two mission stations. A community of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary is also present, helping connect Catholic communities across a broad mountainous and former mining area.
Jangseong has a distinct local character as a parish that grew amid the development and later changes of the Taebaek coal-mining region. The parish church is the center for Mass, the sacraments, catechesis, and community activities, while also serving as a pastoral hub linking Catholics in outlying mission stations and neighboring areas. To understand Jangseong Parish today, it is important to see not only the church building but its role as a regional parish serving southern Taebaek and the Seokpo area, together with the background of a faith community formed in a society closely connected with labor and mining.
History & origins
Catholic evangelization in the Jangseong area can be traced in earnest to November 1947, when Father Hayward of Gangneung Parish administered the autumn seasonal confessions there. A Jangseong mission station subsequently developed under Gangneung Parish, and when Sangdong mission station was elevated to a parish in 1959, Jangseong was transferred to the new Sangdong Parish. Father Francis Xavier Lee Yeong-seop, pastor of Sangdong, visited Jangseong monthly to celebrate the sacraments, helping the local community take firmer root.
As the Catholic population grew, preparations began to elevate the mission station to parish status. Construction of a church on land belonging to the Korea Coal Corporation began in April 1960, and the church and rectory were completed that November. This development shows how closely the growth of the parish was intertwined with the coal-mining society that had formed in Jangseong.
On August 12, 1961, Jangseong mission station was formally elevated to a parish, and Father Francis Xavier Lee Yeong-seop became its first pastor. The church was dedicated that October, and the following year the parish purchased the church site through an agreement with the Korea Coal Corporation. As Catholic life in the Taebaek area expanded, new pastoral communities were later separated from Jangseong and mission-station jurisdictions were adjusted. The fact that Jangseong still serves southern Taebaek and part of Seokpo-myeon reflects the continuing pastoral structure that grew out of this history of evangelization in a mining community.
Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia
Jangseong 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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Diocese
Wontong Diocese (Diocese of Wonju)
Official website: http://www.wjcatholic.or.kr
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