Our Lady of the Way Religious Community Chuncheon Branch

History & origins

The Directory of the Catholic Church in Korea gives February 26, 1936, as the foundation date of the Secular Institute Madonna della Strada. The entry for the Chuncheon Branch lists May 5, 2020, as the date of entry into Korea, showing that the activity represented by this branch in Korea is comparatively recent.

An organizational change for the Chuncheon Branch took place in 2022. According to the note in the directory, on October 7, 2022, the Chuncheon Branch was completely separated from the “Korean Branch Headquarters” and came to exist independently as the “Chuncheon Branch Headquarters.” This record identifies the specific point at which it was organized not simply as a local contact but as a distinct branch community.

The public official material does not provide sufficient detail about the founder or early international history at the time of the 1936 foundation, nor about the detailed process by which the Wangsan-myeon community in Gangneung was opened. The most reliable account of this place is therefore one centered on the directly documented foundation date, the date of entry into Korea as recorded in the Chuncheon entry, and the branch’s independent reorganization in 2022.