In the 1960s in the Daughters of St. Paul in Korea, several foreign missionaries lived to lay the foundation of the congregation that celebrates its 60th anniversary of the foundation in 2020. At present, only one Italian missionary Sr. Elena Maria Dorotea D'Oto is still living with us in the community in Seoul.
Sr. Dorotea was born in Casalbore, Avellino, Italy, on Oct. 26, 1931, and entered the Daughters of St.
Paul in 1948. She made the first profession on March 19, 1951, and the
perpetual profession on March 19, 1956. Over 10 years, she aspired to be sent
as a missionary, but her dream wasn't realized immediately.
After the spiritual exercises in Rome in May 1966, General Superior called her
to go abroad to join other missionary sisters already settled in Korea. The new
mission place was not in Africa the place she had dreamed about for so long,
but a small country in the Far East that she didn't know at all. But she didn't
care. She was finally sent to Korea as a missionary and arrived here on Oct. 23,
1966.
Even though she had aspired to be a missionary, fear surged upon her.
Nevertheless, she entrusted everything to God and got on the cargo ship in
August 1966. Leaving Venice, she arrived at Kobe in Japan in September. Due to the seasickness that she suffered for over a month, she rested in Tokyo for a
little while and got on the ship again at Kobe. By way of Busan, she finally
finished her long travels and arrived at the congregation in Seoul.
At the new mission place, her urgent priority was to learn the language so as
to communicate with Korean sisters as well as many Korean people who were
the targets of the apostolate. So she immediately began to study the language at
the Korean language school for the missionaries run by the Friars of St.
Francis at Jeongdong.
From that moment, a problem arose for her, someone who was optimistic and often
laughed a lot; the Korean language was so difficult for her. As tension and
stress piled up, her smile disappeared, and she couldn't stop the tears either
in the congregation or at the school.
One day, while attending the school after daily prayer in front of the
eucharist, all of a sudden, some language popped out of her mouth word by word.
However, her short expressions were only the listing of the words that she said
uniquely in her own way, neglecting the proper word order or the grammar. But
it didn't matter. The fact that she was able to communicate with other sisters
in some way was the greatest blessing and grace. Her unique way of speaking the
language has become a strong base for her missionary life for decades.
As a missionary, Sr. Dorotea was inserted in various fields such as visiting
propaganda, the collective mission, renting and screening of films with a
projector, the local superior and the delegate superior, provincial economa, and
house management, according to the needs.
With warm-heartedness, she also found ways to help the finance of the
congregation and poor neighbors as well by the help of diverse sponsors.
Further details about her life can be found in a book titled "I Would Like
to Shout to the World," published by Pauline.
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/12/162_280900.html
The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ Dec. 26(online), 27(offline), 2019
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