Little Brothers (Franciscan Order)

History & origins

The history of Sancheong Sacred Heart Village reaches back to 1959. Public records of Sancheong County state that a settlement for people affected by Hansen’s disease was established there in that year, while Catholic historical research records that the Franciscans founded Sacred Heart Village around former residents of Gusaengwon in Jinju, with assistance from the Italian Franciscan Fr. Constantio Joo. The community began under a name associated with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a place where people with a history of Hansen’s disease could build a life together.

During the early period of settlement, the efforts of residents were joined by Franciscan support, and the institution gradually developed systems for daily life, medical care, and welfare. Historical research states that when the Korean Province of the Friars Minor was established in 1970, responsibility for Sacred Heart Village passed from the Italian province to the Korean province. This transition provided the basis for the Franciscan community in Sancheong to continue the apostolate of Sacred Heart Village within a Korean provincial structure.

Sacred Heart Village later developed into a community that includes welfare facilities, a quasi-parish, and retreat and educational functions. Ahead of its sixtieth anniversary, Sancheong County opened a history museum to preserve records and objects documenting life there from 1959 onward. The fact that the Directory of the Catholic Church in Korea now lists the site together as the Sancheong Sacred Heart of Jesus Friary, a Hansen’s disease facility, a facility for persons with severe disabilities, and a retreat center shows how Franciscan religious life and social apostolate have remained closely intertwined in this one place.