Missionaries of La Salette - History

History

The Missionaries of La Salette were founded in 1852 by Philibert de Bruillard (1765 - 1860), the Bishop of Grenoble, in southeastern France, as a testimony to Our Lady's appeal to "make (her message) known to all her people." Immediately thereafter, he assigned some of his priests to care for the numerous pilgrims frequenting the mountain shrine. In 1858 these priests formed a religious community with temporary constitutions, under the immediate charge of the Bishop of Grenoble. In 1876 Mgr. Fava approved their more complete constitution, and in May, 1890, the Institute was approved by Rome, thus becoming a religious community of Pontifical Right.

Finding it hard to recruit from the secular clergy, the congregation founded an Apostolic school or missionary college in 1876. After a six-year classical course, students entered a novitiate where they studied the vows and religious life obligations. Upon profession of their first simple vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, they entered the scholasticate in Rome, to complete their philosophical and theological studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

In 1892, after pursuing possible bases in Canada and Texas, five Missionaries established themselves in Hartford, Connecticut with fifteen students. Bishop McMahon of Hartford, Connecticut, welcomed them into his diocese, and they occupied the bishop's former residence. In 1895 they moved to new quarters in Hartford, Connecticut, at the new parish church of Our Lady of Sorrows. The Missionaries began their ministry on Ascension Day of the same year. In 1894, having established themselves in the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts, the congregation received the parish of St. Joseph, Fitchburg, Massachusetts. In 1901, at the suggestion of Bishop Beaven of Springfield, the congregations's Superior General sent a few students to Poland to prepare themselves for Polish parishes in the Springfield Diocese.

In 1902 they were received into the Diocese of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada and also into the Archdiocese of New York.At the request of Archbishop Langevin of St. Boniface, Canada, a few members were sent from the mother-house in Hartford to establish themselves in West Canada with headquarters at Forget, Saskatchewan from where they served in four parishes. In 1909 the missionaries deemed their institute sufficiently developed, owing to additional foundations in Belgium, Madagascar, Poland, and Brazil, and the superior general petitioned the Holy See to approve their constitutions. The request was granted 29 January 1909. Restrictions against religious institutes in France were lifted in 1914, and a number of the congregations's members served in World War I, with fifteen losing their lives.

In North America the institute spread their parish work throughout the United States and Canada. The North American mission first established a province based in Hartford in 1934. Three more province establishments followed at Attleboro (1945), St. Louis (1961) and Georgetown, Illinois (1967). In 2000 these four North American provinces were merged to form one new province for the entire continent, headquartered at Hartford, Connecticut. Missionary work to third world nations steadily expanded throughout the 20th century with the latest expansions in India, Myanmar and Indonesia.