성 토마스 영성센터

History & origins

The background of St. Thomas Spirituality Center is the establishment of the Dominican Order in Korea. The Dominicans are an international Order of Preachers with a long tradition, and their modern Korean community began in earnest when missionaries arrived in May 1990. The early friars worked to establish a stable religious community while preparing to receive and form Korean vocations; formation of Korean candidates followed from 1992. Their ministry developed beyond building a community, sharing Dominican spirituality with the Korean Church through spiritual direction, retreats, and faith formation.

In November 1994 a Dominican monastery in the Mia-ri area of Seoul was blessed, giving the Seoul community a more stable base for religious life. The Korean Dominicans subsequently continued formation and preaching as well as retreat and spiritual-direction ministry, and the Seoul community is now connected with St. Dominic Monastery in Suyu-dong. St. Thomas Spirituality Center is located today at the same address, 16-8 Samyang-ro 139na-gil in Gangbuk-gu, and the Korean Catholic directory registers it as an education and retreat house entrusted to the Dominicans.

Reliable public sources do not, however, establish the exact date on which a facility specifically named “St. Thomas Spirituality Center” first opened, nor do they provide a complete chronology of the move from the earlier Mia-ri community to the present Suyu-dong address. The center’s history should therefore not simply be equated with the Dominicans’ 1990 arrival in Korea or the 1994 monastery blessing. The safest documented continuity is that the Dominican community established itself in Korea, developed a spirituality apostolate, and now operates an education and retreat facility within its Suyu-dong monastery. That limitation is itself important historical information for understanding the center. Rather than inventing an opening date, it is more accurate to preserve only the documented connection between the Dominicans’ development of spirituality ministry in Korea and the present operation of an education and retreat facility at this address.