About this place
Dominico Retreat House is a Catholic retreat and house of prayer in Hoengseong, Gangwon State, within the Diocese of Wonju. The Guide to the Catholic Church in Korea lists the Missionary Sisters of St. Dominic as the religious congregation responsible for the house. Unlike a parish church with territorial jurisdiction, it is a religious-apostolate facility where individuals and groups can step away from ordinary routines for prayer, reflection, and spiritual renewal.
Its identity lies in the meeting of the sisters’ religious life and their retreat apostolate. In the quiet environment of Hoengseong, the house provides a setting where participants can focus on prayer and receive spiritual support in a way distinct from ordinary parish structures. Because specific programs and schedules can change, this introduction is limited to the stable identity of the facility, the congregation responsible for it, and its role as a place of retreat and prayer. As the name “retreat house” indicates, the center of the facility is not accommodation itself but time spent in prayer and spiritual recollection. It should therefore be understood not as an ordinary tourist lodging or training center, but as a Catholic spiritual space operated by a religious congregation. This functional identity is more important for understanding the place than the package’s technical classification as a chapel.
History & origins
The Missionary Sisters of St. Dominic began their apostolate in Korea when the first members arrived on December 3, 1983. As the congregation established communities in Korea, it accepted an invitation from the Diocese of Wonju in 1987 and opened a novitiate in Hoengseong, where the facility was blessed. From that period, Hoengseong became an important base for the sisters’ formation and spiritual apostolate.
Alongside the novitiate, the congregation also participated in parish and mission-station apostolates in the Diocese of Wonju. In 1988 the sisters assisted liturgical and pastoral work at Pungsuwon Parish and mission stations in the Hoengseong area, linking the prayer life of the religious community with the needs of the local Church.
The Catholic Encyclopedia of Korea records that from 1990 the congregation operated a “retreat house” in Hoengseong. As the foundation used for formation and community life expanded into an apostolate serving the retreats and spiritual renewal of Catholics, the identity that continues in the present Dominico Retreat House became clear.
The retreat house today was formed within this broader story of the congregation’s arrival in Korea and settlement in Hoengseong. Unlike the history of a parish or mission station, its development was not centered on territorial jurisdiction but on a retreat apostolate through which the sisters share their life of prayer and spirituality with the faithful. The congregation’s move into Hoengseong was more than the establishment of another convent; formation, local pastoral service, and the retreat apostolate became connected there in stages. The sequence—from the novitiate, to cooperation with parishes and mission stations, and then to the operation of a retreat house—shows that the present facility’s function developed through the religious community’s gradual establishment in the region. In particular, the 1990 record of operating a retreat house shows that the present facility is not merely a later name, but belongs to a retreat apostolate that has been continuously developed in Hoengseong since at least that period.
Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia
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- 한국천주교주교회의 온라인 주소록
Diocese
Wontong Diocese (Diocese of Wonju)
Official website: http://www.wjcatholic.or.kr
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