In 1920, Propaganda Fide created the Vicariate Apostolic of Wonsan, with the Abbey of St Benedict, Tokwon, as its administrative and spiritual center.
The next year, Propaganda Fide added to the Vicariate Apostolic parts of eastern Manchuria that included large Korean populations.
On December 22, 1922, the Missionary Benedictines of Tokwon had established a mission station in Yenki, which was now converted into a proper monastery.
While ordained Missionary Benedictines administered the seminaries, the abbey's brothers ran workshops and a printing press, producing religious literature in Korean.
In the midst of the flourishing of the Abbey of Yenki, the monastery's mission stations oftentimes fell victim to the violent atmosphere of Manchukuo, as Chinese and Korean partisans resisted the Japanese occupying forces.
While they were able to reestablish community life, the mission apostolate of the monks was curtailed by the Chinese authorities, who were intent on halting the spread of Christianity in Manchuria.
Forced to evacuate the monastery, the community under Ackermann subsisted in a convent, a Korean parish, and a mission station before all the monks were expelled from the country.
[4] After an absence of fifty years, the monks of the Congregation of Missionary Benedictines of Saint Ottilien revived Holy Cross Abbey in 2001.
Two of these monks were serving at the newly erected Holy Cross Monastery in Kouqian, a town in Yongji County, Jilin.