MISSIONARIES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. - A religious congregation founded at Tepeyac, near Mexico City, at Christmas 1914, when Msgr. Raimondo Ibarra, archbishop of Puebla, gave the habit to the priest Domenico Martinez and the cleric Mosè Lira. The true founder, however, was Fr. Felice Rougier, of the Society of Mary, who, called to organize this work and to form the first missionaries, himself took the habit in 1926.
The M. of the H. S. devote themselves to all works proper to priestly activity and to the spiritual direction of souls; they receive a profound ascetical-mystical formation, and as nourishment for their spiritual life they have adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament day and night. The Congregation was approved by the Holy See in 1939.
It possesses 15 houses in Mexico, one in Rome, the central Seminary of Lima, and several parishes in the United States; the apostolic vicariate of Lower California has also been entrusted to II. At present it numbers 350 religious.