Yeongchun Mission Station

History & origins

The official founding year of 영춘 공소 is recorded as 1965. On November 15 of that year, the mission chapel was blessed and the first Mass was celebrated there. The Catholic Times reported that the chapel, dedicated to Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, had been provided through donations from Catholics in the United States and that the mission community numbered 120 faithful. This gives a concrete picture of the period when the Catholics of Yeongchun obtained a dedicated place for their mission community and established a regular liturgical life.

영춘 공소 was later maintained under Uirim-dong Parish. According to the history of Uirim-dong Parish in the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia, the interior of the mission chapel was repaired in August 1993, and in February 1995 jurisdiction over the mission was transferred from Uirim-dong Parish to Danyang Parish. This was a change in the community's pastoral connection resulting from the reorganization of parish jurisdictions in the Jecheon and Danyang area.

Through the establishment and repair of its chapel and the later transfer of parish jurisdiction, 영춘 공소 continued as a community for the religious life of local Catholics. The surviving records of the early chapel blessing and later pastoral reorganization show how a rural mission station could remain connected to a parish while sustaining a Catholic community over many decades.