Founded as a monastic mission in Seoul, the community transferred to Tokwon in the 1920s to take charge of the newly created Apostolic Vicariate of Wonsan.

The persecution of Christians in North Korea since 1949—including the torture and murder of dozens of men and women religious—made any church activity in the abbacy impossible.

Following the model used in their African monasteries, lay brothers established a carpentry shop and a trade school, while priests busied themselves with pastoral work and education.

[6] By the time Soviet forces withdrew in 1949, there were around 60 monks at the Abbey of Tokwon (25 of them Korean)[7] and around 20 sisters of the Tutzing Congregation in a monastery in nearby Wonsan.

[8] In May 1949 under the rule of Kim Il Sung, the North Korean Ministry of State Security occupied the monastery, arrested all monks and sisters and moved them to prisons and internment camps.

[10] During the same period, 17 monks and two sisters died of starvation, illness, hard physical labour and bad living conditions in the camps.

[2] In May 2007 the process began for the beatification of the 36 North Koreans from the Abbey of Tokwon martyred during the wave of anti-Christian persecution under the rule of Kim Il Sung.