PRIESTS OF SAINT MARY OF TINCHBRAY. - They were founded in 1851 by Fr. Charles Duguey, then assistant parish priest of Tinchebray, diocese of Séez in France.
Fr. Duguey first opened the College of St. Mary in Tinchebray, with the help of some priests, who took religious vows; he gave life to a congregation of brothers similar to that of the Christian instruction of Ploërmel.
This religious family grew rapidly; but in 1880 it split: the brothers, who imparted Christian instruction in some twenty parishes, joined the Institute of Ploërmel, and the congregation of priests took the name of S. of S. M. In 1898, the Decretum laudis made it an institute of pontifical right, which was definitively approved in 1939. In 1902, when the struggle against religious broke out in France, the Institute saw all its colleges closed and its fathers dispersed. The youngest among the priests left for western Canada, where many European emigrants were then flocking; to track them down, educate them, create parishes, build churches: such was their work, first in the diocese of St-Albert, then in that of Prince Albert, where they still exercise their ministry. In the diocese of Montréal they also have the parish of Charlemagne, with a formation house attached to it.
The religious who remained in their homeland run an elementary school in the diocese of Quimper; at Tinchebray and in the surrounding area they have a school of agriculture for the young people of the countryside, while other fathers devote themselves to the work of parish missions. They have also taken charge of the parish of St. Cross at Ivry. From the very earliest times of their foundation, the S. of S. M. had a special devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows; in 1908 they obtained from the Holy See the erection of an association of prayer and apostolate on behalf of the dying under the title of "Association of Our Lady of a Good Death." The work had a wonderful growth; within a decade it spread throughout the whole world and today it numbers several million members.
The Institute currently (1952) has 50 religious, both priests and laymen.
Gustavo Fournage