Salesian Sisters (Daughters of Mary Help of Christians)

History & origins

The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians were founded on August 5, 1872, in Mornese, Italy, by St. John Bosco and St. Maria Domenica Mazzarello. The institute began with the purpose of providing Christian education to young people, especially girls in difficult circumstances, and first came to Korea on April 24, 1957. Its early apostolate centered on schools and Sunday schools, later expanding to work with young women in employment and with vulnerable youth.

In the Masan area, the Salesian Sisters’ local apostolate took clearer shape in the late 1970s with the operation of the Auxilium Center for young working women. The center provided residential care and education for about ten years, after which the sisters reorganized their work to focus more directly on the integral education and welfare of young people. In 1988 they disposed of the former center and acquired the present site in Sodap-dong, and construction of a new facility began in March 1991.

The “House of Youth,” completed in May 1992, included not only spaces for youth education but also a chapel and living quarters for the sisters. Sodap-dong thus became a local Salesian base where youth education and religious community life were brought together. The present Changwon convent reflects both the broader expansion of the sisters’ work in Korea beyond school education into diverse forms of youth ministry and the local shift in Masan from support for young working women toward the integral formation of youth.