SOCIETY OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF PARIS. — It is the oldest Institute exclusively devoted to missionary work, founded in 1660 by the first Apostolic Vicars of East Asia, PALLIO (v.) and Pierre Lambert de la Motte, and approved by the Propaganda on 11 August 1664.
From its foundation it was entrusted with the missions of Siam, Tonkin, Cochinchina, western and southern China; in 1776 it was also assigned the Malabar mission in India, in 1831 that of Korea and Japan, in 1841 that of Malacca, in 1848 that of Manchuria, and in 1855 that of Burma.
The Society’s special aim is the apostolate among non-believers. It is a Society, without vows, of secular priests who may not accept any office in Europe until they have spent at least five years on mission. Since its foundation the Society has had 120 missionaries massacred, of whom 16 have already been beatified. In 1952 it numbered 930 members, who had taken the “bon propos,” equivalent to the oath of other societies; 140 were minor seminarians in the two philosophy and theology seminaries, and about a hundred boys in the minor seminary. In the same year the Society was working in 28 missions located in Korea, Manchuria, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Siam, Malacca, Burma, and India. Its missionaries also work under the direction of indigenous bishops in nine other missions in Japan, China, Vietnam, and India. In the last twenty-five years it has handed over fifteen missions to the indigenous clergy in Japan, Korea, Manchuria, China, Vietnam, Siam, and India.
The 37 missions entrusted to the Society cover an area of 3,133,000 sq. km. with a population of 182 million, of whom 1,784,000 are Catholics. — See pl. LV.