Divine Providence Sisters

History & origins

The Sisters of Divine Providence were founded in Mainz, Germany, in 1851 by Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler and came to Korea in 1964. The Korean Catholic Encyclopedia records that their early work in Korea developed largely around Incheon, where sisters served in evangelization and education, including at Baengnyeongdo Parish, as well as in medical and social-welfare ministries. Through this history, Incheon became one of the congregation’s important areas of apostolic activity in Korea.

Publicly available sources do not establish the exact year in which the Songwol-dong community itself was opened, but official congregational records show that the Incheon community was already active there by around 2010. At that time the sisters held regular vocation gatherings at the Seop-ri kindergarten in Songwol-dong, showing that the local community was involved not only in religious life and local ministry but also in accompanying vocations.

The Incheon community continues to be listed in the Directory of the Catholic Church in Korea, while the congregation’s official social-welfare information shows ongoing ministries for older people and local communities within the Diocese of Incheon. Its history can therefore be understood as the local continuation of the congregation’s long-standing tradition of evangelization and care in Incheon since the early period of its Korean mission.