MISSIONARI DI SAN FRANCESCO DI SALES. — The Congregation was founded on 24 October 1838 at Annecy near the tomb of the Saint, under whose patronage it was placed, by Fr. Peter Mermier of Chaumont (Haute-Savoie). It brings together priests and lay brothers and has as its purpose parish missions, the education of youth, and the conversion of the unfaithful and heretics.
It received the decree of praise on 2 June 1843 and was officially recognized by the Holy See on 19 May 1860. In 1845 the Congregation of Propaganda
MISSIONARI DI SAN FRANCESCO DI SALES — St. Francis de Sales College. Nagpur (Hindustan).
assigned it the mission of the United States, and in 1858 it was founded in Rome and in New York by Fr. Isaac Thomas Hecker together with Frs. Augustine F. Hewit, George Deshon, Francis A. Baker, and Clarence A. Walworth. All of these, members of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, due to controversies over the suitability of certain missionary methods and desiring to dedicate themselves especially to the conversion of non-Catholics in America, were dispensed from their vows in order to form the new community.
The spiritual characteristic of the religious life of the Paulists is the practice of pious exercises in private and in common, which the first fathers already observed while they were Redemptorists; and although they do not take religious vows, they follow the Gospel teaching as if canonical bond prescribed it for them.
Their activity is primarily the conversion of non-Catholics, and embraces every branch of Catholic apostolate: lectures, preaching, and the press. For this reason, they were the first to give life in America to Catholic printing (in the last three years alone, 15 million pamphlets have been distributed); in 1865 they published the first monthly Catholic periodical; in 1894 they introduced the use of mechanized means, with a trailer equipped as a chapel and lodging for two missionaries, fitted with loudspeakers; in the most populous areas, they have opened information centers with reading and lecture halls, devoting themselves in every center to teaching special classes and individuals who are non-Catholics; and at the request of several bishops, they have taken on the direction, in many universities of large states, of the “Newman Clubs” (organizations that integrate the spiritual and social life of Catholic students under the guidance of the Paulist chaplain, who serves as their spiritual director, safeguards the rights of Catholic students, and is recognized as a representative of Catholicism within the university). In the various Paulist parishes, the work is characterized by the particular ministry of preaching, the education of children, assistance to the poor, and the decorum and dignity of sacred liturgy. In 1926, the Paulists were assigned the ancient church of St. Susanna in Rome for American Catholics visiting or residing in the Eternal City. On 13 July 1929, Pius XI granted the decree of praise to the Society, and on 17 December 1940, Pius XII definitively approved it along with its Constitutions. At present, the Missionaries of St. Paul the Apostle number 182 priests, 90 students, and 21 novices.