TOK-WON. – An abbazia nullius situated in the north-eastern region of Korea, covering an area of 3,625 sq. km and with a population of about 340,000 inhabitants. It is entrusted to the Congregation of the Benedictines of St Ottilia for Foreign Missions.
In 1909, Msgr. Mutel, Apostolic Vicar of Korea, turned to the Benedictines of St Ottilia in Bavaria, who soon founded a monastery in Seoul, initially as a priory and then as an abbey in 1913. The first abbot was Father Prior Boniface Sauer. The Benedictines’ aim was to train Christian teachers for the small provincial schools. Besides this main work, the Fathers opened a carpentry and painting workshop and a mechanical workshop, the embryo of a future industrial school. However, special difficulties arising from Japanese legislation forced the Benedictines to suspend the normal school courses, while the industrial school continued to prosper until the war of 1914 brought all progress to a halt. On 5 Aug. 1920, the Apostolic Vicariate of Won-san or Kanto (today Ham-Heung) was erected and likewise entrusted to the Benedictines. On 31 Aug. 1927, the seat of the abbey was transferred from Seoul to T.-W. On 12 Jan. 1940, it was raised to the status of an abbazia nullius, with the assignment of a small part of the territory of the aforementioned vicariate, including the city of Won-san. In addition to workshops, it also had a large estate (200 hectares), which, cultivated by lay brothers using the most modern methods, was cited by the civil authorities, before communist rule north of the 38th parallel, as a model and almost daily visited by tourists.
Even before the present conflict, the communist government of the North had stripped the mission of all its personnel, imprisoning them. Abbot Msgr. Boniface Sauer is reported to have died in prison in Jan. 1950. There were 4,997 Catholics; 22 priests; 7 indigenous and 9 foreign lay brothers; 295 nuns, 9 of them foreign; 696 catechists; 180 teachers; 31 major and 36 minor seminarians; 12 elementary schools; 4 middle schools.
