Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate

About this place

The Sangju St. Joseph Community of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary is a women’s institute of consecrated life located in Sangju within the Diocese of Andong. The Catholic directory of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea registers it as the congregation’s “Sangju St. Joseph Community” and confirms that the community uses the same address as Gyelim-dong Catholic Church. The place is therefore more accurately understood as a religious community living within the parish setting rather than as the parish itself.

The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary is an international missionary religious institute founded in 1877, whose official introduction emphasizes a life of being sent across national and regional boundaries to proclaim the Good News. The Sangju St. Joseph Community is one local community living this institute’s spirituality of common life, prayer, and mission. Although it shares an address with Gyelim-dong Parish, it is a religious community distinct from the parish’s administrative unit and can be understood as a local presence of the congregation’s missionary vocation within the local Church.