Saint Columban Foreign Mission Sisters Congregation

History & origins

The relationship between the Missionary Sisters of St. Columban and the Diocese of Chuncheon reaches back to the aftermath of the Korean War. According to a Catholic historical record reproducing the Diocese of Chuncheon’s eightieth-anniversary series, physicians and nurses from the congregation were sent to Korea at the request of the diocesan bishop in June 1955. After studying Korean, they arrived in Chuncheon that November and began their mission with a strong focus on medical care in a region still suffering from war, poverty, and disease.

The sisters later expanded their medical apostolate. In the 1960s they traveled to remote mountain communities around Chuncheon to provide care where medical services were scarce, and over time they also became involved in social welfare and hospice ministry. During the 1980s they cooperated in services for the elderly, and in 1989 they began home hospice work, visiting patients and families not only in Chuncheon but also in areas such as Hongcheon, Gapyeong, and Wonju.

St. Columban Clinic, which had long served as a center of their medical mission, closed in 2011, and the related hospice facility closed in 2014. Meanwhile, the convent in Jukrim-dong, used for about fifty-seven years, moved to Mancheon-ri in 2013. The diocesan record states that from 2015 the Mancheon-ri community continued its mission through education, ministry with migrant women and the Filipino community, Bible sharing, and care for the elderly. This transition shows how the Columban Sisters’ mission in Chuncheon evolved with changing needs rather than remaining tied to a single institution.