MISSIONARIES OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF LOURDES. — In 1835 some zealous priests took charge of the sanctuary of Our Lady of Caraison and later also that of other sanctuaries in the dioceses of Tarbes and Pamiers. Thus was born the religious Congregation of the Priests of the Congratulation to the Immaculate Mary. In 1876 the title was changed to that of M. of the I. C.
On 10 July 1868 they received the decree of praise and on 25 Aug. 1876 the approval of the Institute. The Constitutions were revised after the publication of the Canon Law and approved on 27 Feb. 1923.
The particular purpose of the Congregation has been from the beginning that of spreading ever more among the faithful
MISSIONARIES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT — II
Fr. Felix of Jesus (Rougier), founder of the Congregation (d. 10 Jan. 1938).
of the I. C. in all there were 74, the novices 9
Agostino Pugliese
MISSIONARIES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT —
A religious Congregation founded at Tepeyac, near Mexico City, at Christmas 1914, when Msgr. Raymond Ibarra, Archbishop of Puebla, gave the habit to the priest Dominic Martinez and to the cleric Moses Lira. However, the true founder was Fr. Felix Rougier, of the Society of Mary, who, called to organize this work and to form the first missionaries, later took the habit himself in 1926.
The M. of the H. S. devote themselves to all the works proper to priestly activity and to the spiritual direction of souls; they receive a profound ascetical-mystical formation, and for the sustenance of their spiritual life they have perpetual adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The Congregation was approved by the Holy See in 1939.
It possesses 15 houses in Mexico, one in Rome, the central seminary in Lima, and some parishes in the United States; it has also been entrusted with the Apostolic Vicariate of Lower California. At present it numbers 350 religious.