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Congregazione Dello Spirito Santo
Clivo Di Cinna 195, 00136 Roma-IT
Tel. 39 06 35 404 61
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SPIRITAN ALBUM

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

Consolidation and new foundations

Deepening of roots at home to assure the future mission

During the leadership of Libermann from 1842 to 1852, 47 Spiritans were sent to Africa: of these, 20 died, 15 returned to France and 12 continued to work in Africa. These statistics made the Congregation look to its policies of recruitment, formation, and whatever was necessary to assure sufficient personnel who could survive in a hostile climate. It was, above all, the climate and recurring fever that made the whole undertaking so fragile and unpredictable; seven out of the first thirteen missions had to be closed for lack of personnel.


Fr. Schwindenhammer, the successor of Libermann, slowed down the sending of missionaries to Africa in order to consolidate the Congregation in France and implant it in other parts of Europe. Those already in Africa cried out for more helpers but not many were forthcoming. Mgr. Kobès made many unsuccessful demands for more personnel, and protested against the diversification of works being undertaken in France. From 1860 onwards, the Congregation spread into other parts of Europe and started again to send men to Africa.

France

For the first ten years as his period as Superior General,
Fr. Schwindenhammer was consolidating the Congregation in France. He started social and educational works, orphanages and trade schools.

French overseas territories

Starting in 1851, the Spiritans opened colleges, and charitable works, and took on the responsibility for parishes in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyana and Reunion.

Ireland

Libermann was very keen to make a foundation in Ireland, but when he learnt that a Mr. Hand had just started the missionary seminary of All Hallows in Dublin, he shelved the idea. But he did receive the first Irish brother in 1849.

In 1859, the Spiritans opened a school at Blanchardstown which was transferred to Blackrock the following year. A second school/seminary was started at Rockwell in 1864.

Germany

Libermann himself travelled in the Rhineland and recruited seven German aspirants. In 1864, the Congregation bought the Abbey of Marienstatt and, close by, an old Franciscan convent at Marienthal. Spiritans opened a school/seminary, a novitiate, and schools for young people with learning difficulties. They took over the pastoral care of two sanctuaries and twenty surrounding villages. After the war of 1870, Bismark expelled the Spiritans from Germany.

Australia

A group of missionaries of the Holy Heart of Mary went to the south-west of the country in 1845, but as a result of disagreements with the Bishop, they withdrew in 1848. Another attempted foundation came with the opening of a school in 1888 at Ballarat, but this again was abandoned three years later.

Trinidad

A college was opened in Trinidad in 1863

Haiti

In 1865, the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince asked the Spiritans to open the college of Saint Martial.

Portugal

In 1867 a junior seminary was started at Santarem and was subsequently transferred to Gibraltar. The Seminary of the Holy Spirit was founded at Braga.


The United States

Several of those trained in the Seminary of the Holy Spirit found their way to America. For twenty years, Fr. Schwindenhammer was asked to make a foundation in the United States. Finally, when the Spiritans were expelled from Germany by Bismark, four of them were sent to work in Ohio in 1875.

Brazil  

At the request of Mgr. de Macédo, the Bishop of Belem (a diocese that included the whole of Amazonia), the Congregation took over the running of the seminary of Our Lady at Belem in 1885.

Missions in Asia

After the French Revolution, the Prefecture Apostolic of Pondichery was confided to the Spiritans in 1828. They opened a school in Pondichery and a technical school in Chandemagor. The Foreign Missions of Paris were given this Prefecture in 1886 and the Spiritans withdrew two years later. In 1977, the Congregation made a foundation in Pakistan in response to a request by the Bishops of that country.

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expansion in Africa

Evangelisation in Africa

From the start of their apostolate, both Mgr. Bessieux in Gabon and Mgr. Kobès in Senegal looked for ways of penetrating into the interior away from the coast. The first attempts to found missions had already made them realise how difficult communications and getting hold of provisions were going to be. Evidently it would take time before they could press inland, because its success would depend so much on the preparations made in the large coastal stations: Dakar, Libreville, Landana, Zanzibar, Bathurst etc.

The Spiritans sent to Senegal and Gabon took particular care with the education of young people. The founders of the principal coastal missions soon opened training centres for teachers, catechists, farmers, craftsmen and, above all, for creating a local clergy.

The Gambia

The Spiritans first arrived at Bathurst, the capital of the British colony of The Gambia, in 1849.

Sierra Leone

The Congregation came to this British Protectorate in 1864, travelling from there to Guinea where they opened the mission of Boffa in 1877. They reached Liberia in 1884 but had to withdraw after three years. The first foothold in Nigeria was made in 1885 at Onitsha, a long way inland but situated on the banks of the vast river Niger.

Angola

When Mgr. Bessieux visited the Bishop of Angola and the Congo, Mgr. Moreira y Reis, he was asked to get missionaries for Angola. The first team arrived there in March 1866 and founded the mission of Landana. They set up a garden and plantations, a school and boarding school for the sons of the chiefs, the half-casts, and "the little children bought by the mission out of slavery". From Angola, they penetrated into the Congo.

Zanzibar

This was a mission territory stretching along the East African coast for 3,000 kms. In 1862, two stations were opened "to help the setting up of other missionary stations": the island of Zanzibar, famous for its slave market, and Bagamoyo on the mainland. The first mission started in the interior was at Mhonda in 1877.

 
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