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About this place
Maepo Catholic Church is a parish in the Jecheon district of the Diocese of Wonju and serves as the central Catholic community for Maepo-eup in Danyang County, Chungcheongbuk-do. The official parish name in the Guide to the Catholic Church in Korea is “Maepo,” and its patron is Saint Joseph the Worker. Its present pastoral territory is listed as Maepo-eup, making the parish the local center where Catholics gather for Mass, the sacraments, catechesis, and community life.
The character of Maepo Parish can be understood as that of a Catholic community shaped within the working and residential life of the region. Its patron, Saint Joseph the Worker, expresses a Catholic spirituality that values the sanctification of labor and everyday life, and provides an appropriate spiritual symbol for a community rooted in the life of Maepo. The church today is therefore not merely a building or a destination for visitors, but a living parish with pastoral jurisdiction. Its historical development is important, but equally important is the fact that liturgical and sacramental life continues here for local Catholics in the present. It is also a place where the region’s liturgical life and formation in the faith continue within a single parish community.
History & origins
The organized Catholic community at Maepo began around 1960 in the form of a mission station. The Catholic Encyclopedia of Korea records that about ten Catholic households living in the Maepo area, then under Danyang Parish of the Diocese of Cheongju, formed the nucleus of Maepo Mission Station. It was not yet an independent parish, but the creation of a local mission community where Catholics could gather and remain connected with the parish provided the foundation for later growth.
The diocesan jurisdiction then changed. On May 1, 1969, a territorial reorganization transferred Maepo Mission Station to the Diocese of Wonju. As the community developed, it was separated from Danyang Parish and established as Maepo Parish on March 13, 1979, with Saint Joseph the Worker as patron. The parish began with a Catholic population in the five hundreds, and statistics preserved in the Catholic Encyclopedia show continued growth through the 1980s and 1990s, reaching more than eight hundred Catholics by 1994.
Older records describe the parish territory as all of Maepo-eup together with part of Jeokseong-myeon, whereas the present Guide to the Catholic Church in Korea lists Maepo-eup as the current territory. The sources used here do not establish the exact date of that boundary adjustment, but they show that the parish’s pastoral area changed as the local Church was reorganized. The central line of Maepo’s history is therefore its development from a small mission community, through a change of diocesan jurisdiction, into an independent parish whose community continues today.
Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia
Maepo Church: history and architecture
Read about the place's history, architecture, people, and events in the Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia.
Encyclopedia articles are currently available in Korean.
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- Last updated
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- Francisco Diary
Diocese
Wontong Diocese (Diocese of Wonju)
Official website: http://www.wjcatholic.or.kr
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