Order of Our Lady of Perpetual Help

History & origins

The Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help were founded in Pyongyang on June 27, 1932. The founder was Bishop John Edward Morris of Maryknoll, then Apostolic Vicar of Pyongyang. During the 1930s and 1940s, the community developed through the stages of postulancy, novitiate formation, and the first professions of Korean sisters.

The upheaval surrounding the Korean War brought major changes. The congregation’s official chronology records that in 1950 the community was temporarily dispersed after the North Korean authorities requisitioned the convent building. The community was later reorganized in South Korea, and in 1970 its canonical affiliation was temporarily transferred from the Diocese of Pyongyang to the Archdiocese of Seoul until reunification.

The congregation’s direct connection with Gajeong-dong in Incheon was established in the 1970s. On October 24, 1974, it completed a memorial church for Bishop Francis Borgia Hong Yong-ho together with a House of Prayer in Gajeong-dong, and the House of Prayer opened on July 5, 1975. The present Incheon branch and prayer house stand within the historical continuity of this apostolate of prayer and retreat.

After the war, the community began to re-establish itself in South Korea, celebrating the dedication of its motherhouse in Busan’s Daecheong-dong in 1951. In 1955 the motherhouse and novitiate moved to Heukseok-dong in Seoul, and in 1964 the motherhouse moved again to Jeongneung, where a new building was completed in 1966. Through this gradual rebuilding, the congregation was able in the 1970s to broaden its apostolates into new forms, including biblical ministry and houses of prayer. The establishment of the Gajeong-dong House of Prayer also coincided with a period when the congregation was developing new biblical apostolates. The Catholic Students’ Bible Movement began in 1972, followed by completion of the prayer space in Gajeong-dong in 1974. Together, these developments show a postwar community moving beyond internal reconstruction toward a wider apostolate centered on the Word of God and prayer.