Love Religious Society

History & origins

The Missionaries of Charity Brothers were founded by St. Teresa of Calcutta in 1963. According to the congregation’s official history, March 25, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, was chosen as Foundation Day, and the early community developed with the assistance of the Missionaries of Charity Sisters and their spiritual directors. In 1966, the Jesuit priest Ian Travers-Ball joined as “Brother Andrew” and took responsibility for formation and leadership; the congregation remembers him as co-founder.

The congregation became an institute of diocesan right in 1967 and, after further development of its constitutions and international growth, became an institute of pontifical right on June 12, 2003. Through this process, the identity of the religious Brothers and their charism of service to people in poverty became more firmly established institutionally.

The congregation’s direct connection with Busan began in 1980. The Catholic Encyclopedia of Korea, in its entry on the Diocese of Busan, records that the Missionaries of Charity Brothers entered Busan on September 16, 1980, and began serving disadvantaged neighbors. This is the verifiable point at which the history of the international congregation and that of its Busan community meet.

Today, the official Catholic directory of Korea lists the “Missionaries of Charity Brothers (Busan Monastery)” in Bugok-dong, Geumjeong-gu. Official sources do not provide enough detail to trace every move between the community’s arrival in Busan in 1980 and its present address, but they clearly confirm the continuing presence in Busan of a religious community dedicated to serving people in poverty.