Jeonggeum Mission Station

History & origins

The Catholic community of the Jeonggeum area is also connected with memories of the period of persecution. A 2023 Catholic Peace Newspaper history of the mission station notes traces of Catholic life in and around Jeonggeum-ri from the time of the Byeongin Persecution and refers to arrest records in the Podocheong Deungnok involving Catholics associated with the area. Because the exact residence and martyrdom circumstances of individual persons require separate documentary verification, this account limits itself to the supported point that Jeonggeum preserves memories of Catholic faith from the persecution era.

The present Jeonggeum mission community is recorded as taking an institutional form in 1916, when a mission station was established around the Gwak family. Catholic activity became more vigorous again in the late 1940s, and in 1953 a new mission-station building was erected with assistance from the U.S. military. That building served for many decades as the central place for prayer and gathering among local Catholics.

As the pastoral structure of the region changed, the jurisdiction of Jeonggeum was also adjusted. After Ucheon, itself long a mission station, was elevated to parish status, Jeonggeum came under Ucheon Parish. When the old mission building aged and a new space became necessary, members of Ucheon Parish decided to use funds they had accumulated for their own new parish church first for the construction of Jeonggeum mission station.

The new Jeonggeum mission-station building was completed and blessed on July 29, 2023, in a ceremony presided over by Bishop Basil Cho Kyu-man of Wonju. The sequence from its establishment in 1916 through the long-used former building to the dedication of the new one shows how a small rural Catholic community has repeatedly renewed its place of faith across generations with the support of its parish and diocese.