The Marmot’s Hole

Finally, my Catholic church post.

As you know, I was surfing the web a couple of weeks ago when I came across an excellent Korean blog that had a series on Korea’s historic Catholic churches.  Being, as I am, intensely interestingly in Korea’s modern architecture and, in addition, being from a Catholic family, I couldn’t help but be fascinated.  Up till now, most of my “modern Korean cultural property” expeditions have focused on colonial Japanese architecture.  Now, however, we’ll be looking at some of the West’s contributions to Korea’a modern architectural (and, indeed cultural) heritage, with last Saturday’s trip examining the works of some of Korea’s intrepid early French Catholic missionaries in particular.

Gupodong Catholic Church

About an hour and a half by bus from Seoul’s Nambu Bus Terminal is the small town of Anseong-si, Gyeonggi-do. Perhaps better known as the home of Korea’s famous traveling performing troupe, the Namsadang [KTO], Anseong is also home to one of Korea’s most unique examples of church architecture, Gupodong Catholic Church.

Now somewhat dwarfed, as you can see above, by a massive modern concrete church (which, truth be told, isn’t so bad), the old Gupodong Catholic Church was built in 1922. Entrusted with designing the church was Father Victor Louis Poisnel (1855-1925), a French missionary priest who, after coming to Korea in 1883, compiled a rather impressive collection of work including designing the interior of Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, designing Jeondong Cathedral in Jeonju and printing catechism books in Korean (in Nagasaki) using the Korean language’s first modern printing type.

Ordering the construction of the church, meanwhile, was Father R. Antonio A. Gombert (1875-1950). Gombert came to Korea with the Paris Foreign Missions at the age of 25. Almost immediately he was sent to cater to the spiritual needs of Anseong’s Catholic community. Anseong actually has a special special place in Korean Catholicism; it was here that many Catholics hid during the persecution of 1866, when thousands of Korean Catholics were martyred (along with eight French Jesuits, sparking a brief war with France). Today there is a Catholic holy spot in Mirinae, which is the pure Korean name for the Milky Way, so named because at night, the hiding Catholics would burn candles in their homes, making the village look like the Milky Way. The Mirinae Holy Ground is also the location of the tomb of Father Andrew Kim Dae-geun, Korea’s first Catholic priest who was martyred during the persecution of 1846 (just for reference, there were four major persecutions of Catholics during the 19th century—1801, 1839, 1846 and 1866).

Anyway, about this Gombert fellow. He tended to the Anseong flock from 1900 to 1932. During that time, he also introduced to Anseong the grapes for which the town is now famous—he planted them in the church garden to make wine for the mass. I believe this was also the start of Korea’s wine culture, but don’t quote me on that.

I’m not quite sure what Father Gombert was doing between 1932 and 1950, but what I do know is that on July 15, 1950, he was captured by the invading North Koreans and marched to a camp in Chunggang-jin, North Korea. He was 76 at the time of his capture. Also captured and sent to Chunggang-jin was his 74-year-old brother Father Julien Gombert, also with the Paris Foreign Missions Society. Sweet bunch of guys, these North Koreans. Anyway, from Tiger Survivors:

GOMBERT, FATHER ANTOINE

A French priest of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, he was 76 years of age at the time of his capture. He and his brother, Julien, were inseparable and carried on their personal conversations in Korean. He died at the conclusion of the Death March on November 12, 1950, in Chunggang-jin, North Korea.

GOMBERT, FATHER JULIEN

A French priest of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, he was 74 at the time of his capture. As had been his expressed wish, he died within 24 hours following the death of his brother, Antoine.

Oh yeah, the church.  The original church was constructed in the Korean hanok form—you can see this from its main body.  The wood used was mostly imported from the Yalu River area.  The Gothic brick steeple, meanwhile, was added in 1955.  The end result, as you can see, is a rather refreshing mixture of Western Gothic and Korean hanok elements, not completely unlike the older Hwasan Catholic Church (built in 1906) in Nonsan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, which I once visited about eight years ago (another shared point, BTW, is that both churches were built with imported Chinese labor).

The interior, meanwhile, is mostly wooden. The intricately carved altar, coincidently, was completed in 1925 and is the handiwork of Won Je-dong, who studied carpentry at Deogwon Monastery.

Ringing the church is a nice little path about which to stroll. Along the path are the Stations of the Cross.  One of the funner things to do when visiting a Catholic Church in Korea, in fact, is to see how each one implements the Stations of the Cross.  Each church is different:

Tomorrow: Gamgok Cathedral (a.k.a. hands-down the most beautiful church I’ve visited in Korea) and Yakhyeon Catholic Church.