About this place
This place is “Choe Yang-eop Thomas Monastery,” a community of the Clerical Congregation of the Blessed Korean Martyrs. The Directory of the Catholic Church in Korea confirms the community in Yeonseo-myeon, Sejong Special Self-Governing City, as a men’s religious community within the Diocese of Daejeon and gives “Choe Yang-eop Thomas Monastery” as its subsidiary name. That monastery name is therefore important for understanding the actual character of the place beyond the package’s more general name of the religious institute.
The Clerical Congregation of the Blessed Korean Martyrs states that its purpose is to follow the Gospel spirit of the Korean martyrs in serving Jesus Christ, the Church, and society. Its official materials describe it as Korea’s first indigenous men’s religious congregation, founded in 1953. Choe Yang-eop Thomas Monastery is one local religious community continuing this Korean-rooted spirituality of consecrated life and martyr faith, and its name itself recalls Fr. Thomas Choe Yang-eop, the second Korean Catholic priest.
History & origins
The Clerical Congregation of the Blessed Korean Martyrs was founded by Fr. Andrew Bang Yu-ryong in Jegi-dong, Seoul, on October 30, 1953. After founding the Sisters of the Blessed Korean Martyrs in 1946, Fr. Bang also prepared a men’s religious community, but the Korean War delayed the plan. After the war he formally began the community at Jegi-dong Parish with two founding members, seeking to establish the first indigenous Korean men’s religious congregation rooted in the spirit of the Korean martyrs.
In its early years, the congregation lived in temporary quarters amid the severe difficulties of the postwar period and moved in 1954 to a building within the Myeongdong Cathedral compound. It gained an institutional foundation through approvals in 1956, and in 1957 the new motherhouse in Seongbuk-dong was blessed and the founder made perpetual profession. The congregation subsequently expanded its formation and apostolates by establishing communities at places including Saenamteo, Jeju, and Incheon.
Today the community in Yeonseo-myeon, Sejong, is listed in the Catholic directory as “Choe Yang-eop Thomas Monastery.” The sources verified for this review do not state when this particular monastery was opened. Rather than infer a local foundation date, this account therefore limits itself to the documented continuity by which the indigenous men’s congregation founded in 1953 expanded through monasteries and local communities and is now present here as Choe Yang-eop Thomas Monastery.
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Building information
- Passenger elevators: 0
- 1 above-ground floors · 0 below-ground floors
- Approved for use in 1998
- Total floor area: 88㎡
Building-register record · · Source
Accessibility information
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Sources and updates
- Information Status
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- Source
- Official source
- Data freshness
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- 한국천주교주교회의 온라인 주소록
Diocese
Daejeon Diocese (Diocese of Daejeon)
Official website: http://www.djcatholic.or.kr
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