The Benedictines administered the Hamhung apostolic vicariate. But they were all arrested or dispersed by communists in the North in 1949. Among them, some dispersed Korean Benedictines fled to the South, but 12 German priests and 12 German brothers were repatriated to Germany by the communists in 1954. The Benedictine order was resettled in Waegwan in the South in 1952 under the leadership of Monsignor Timothy Bitterli, who was appointed apostolic administrator of Hamhung apostolic vicariate and Tokwon Territorial Abbacy by the Vatican. The Benedictine order in the South was approved by the Vatican in 1955.
Religious Institutes of Women
The German Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing served from 1925, and 18 of the German nuns were repatriated by the communists in 1954. Seventeen Korean nuns who fled to the South settled in Daegu in 1951 and opened the first convent there in 1952. The repatriated German sisters returned to South Korea from 1955 onward.
