The edifying story corresponds to episodic writings conceived to give a lesson of Christianity. In this article, it reduces to the stories that the French missionaries in Korea have experienced or that they have heard and they inserted into their letters. On the one hand, this kind of writing is situated in the tradition of the exemplum and on the other hand, it reminds the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses (1702- 1776) of the Jesuits. The edifying story is a genre quite familiar not only to the French missionaries but also to their correspondents. In addition, Korean anecdotes are at a time classic and exotic as well as educational and pleasurable, allowing their authors to move more effectively readers. Whatever its fictional nature is, the edifying story produces and reproduces knowledge on a ‘typical’ Korea while providing unexpected testimonies about this kingdom. Therefore, the Korean edifying story is interpreted at a time as an exemplum and as an ethnographic note. Another reading of the missionaries’ edifying story rests on its stereotyped character because this ‘missionarily correct’ literature invites us to consider the religious mentality of its author and its reader. Thus, to analyze the edifying stories written by the French missionaries in the 19th century Korea is without doubt an interesting way to better understand the French Catholics’ religiousness when they leaded worldwide the Catholic mission.