성 골롬반 외방 선교회

History & origins

The Missionary Society of St. Columban was founded in Ireland in 1918 for mission in China, and its long relationship with the Church in Korea began when Columban priests arrived in 1933. In the early period, mission centered on establishing local churches and serving parishes, and Columbans participated in the growth of the Korean Church through ministry in several dioceses. Over time, mission came to be understood not simply as foreigners assisting a local Church but as a mutual exchange in which local Churches also send missionaries beyond their own borders.

This change became concrete after the Second Vatican Council. In 1982 the Columban General Assembly decided that vocations could also be accepted from countries where the society served. The Korean region responded by establishing the Columban seminary in 1985 and receiving its first Korean seminarians. Korean members subsequently passed through an international formation program, were ordained, and were sent to mission countries. The society’s official material states that the seminary has produced fifteen Korean Columban priests.

Mission in Korea also became more diverse during the same period. In the 1980s the apostolate expanded into work among the urban poor, labor ministry, counseling, studies of inculturation, and rehabilitation for people with disabilities. The first Korean lay missionary team, prepared from 1989, was sent to the Philippines in 1990. Today the seminary, Lay Missionary Center, and vocations office on Bomun-ro 34ga-gil bring these developments together in one place. The exact year when the formation and mission centers moved into the present building could not be established from reliable official web sources, so this history is limited to the verified development of the society and its formation programs. This development also reflects the wider transition of the Korean Church from primarily receiving missionaries to sending missionaries abroad. The formation institutions at the Dongseon-dong site sustain that transition by bringing together vocational discernment, theological formation, and preparation of lay missionaries.