Franciscan Religious Order

About this place

This is the Tongjin St. Andrew Kim Dae-geon Monastery of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. The Guide to the Catholic Church in Korea lists this community in Tongjin-eup, Gimpo, as a male religious house within the Diocese of Incheon and indicates that its friars live in fraternity while carrying out forms of service that include institutional ministry and spiritual accompaniment of the Secular Franciscan Order.

By bearing the name of St. Andrew Kim Dae-geon, Korea’s first priest and a martyr, the monastery also brings the memory of the Korean Church’s martyrs into contact with Franciscan religious life. Its primary identity, however, is not that of a territorial parish but of a monastery where prayer, fraternal community life, and various forms of ecclesial service are carried out. It is therefore best understood as a living religious community and apostolic base rather than simply as a church building.