"The Society... aims to train poor clerics in ecclesiastical discipline, zeal and love of virtue, especially of obedience and poverty, so that they will be ready for anything in the hands of the prelates, - to serve in hospices, to evangelise the poor and the infidels, and not only to undertake, but to love wholeheartedly and to prefer to everything else, the meanest and least attractive ecclesiastical duties for which ministers are found only with difficulty".

Collaboration with the Montfortans

During the XVIII century, one out of three Montfortans were "Spiritans". This cooperation between the foundations of Grignion de Montfort and Claude Poullart des Places would last for more than a century. Until the middle of the XIX century, the members of the Company of Mary were known as "Spiritans", the name given to past students of the Seminary of the Holy Spirit.

Devoted to non-lucrative ministries

In the XVIII century, the Bishops had great difficulty in finding people to fill posts which had no benefice attached: for example, running seminaries, ministering to parishes in the country towns, acting as spiritual directors to religious. All such works were undertaken by Spiritans.

The formation of priests

The Spiritan Associates directed the Seminary of the Holy Spirit and the Seminaries of Meaux and Verdun. Two Spiritans became the Superiors of the Seminaries of Sens and Quimper. Another was appointed director of the Seminary of Pondichery, India, in 1781.

The mission to the most abandoned

Several Spiritans joined the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris, to work in far off countries. In 1733, Guillaume de Rivoal was sent to the Far East and several other Spiritans followed him. Others headed for North America. In 1732, François de la Mothe left for Canada.

In 1737, when Jean François Le Loutre arrived in Acadia (Nova Scotia), he was greeted by a Spiritan, Pierre Maillard, the apostle of the Micmac Indians. This remarkable man, having learnt their difficult language, created a hieroglyphic alphabet, a grammar, and a dictionary, in addition to a book of prayers, hymns and sermons.

By 1750, the Foreign Missions of Paris had six Bishops amongst their members of whom four were Spiritans. In 1768, the parish priest of Isle-Dieu wrote to Cardinal Castelli, Prefect of the Propaganda: "Throughout the thirty eight years in which I have been Vicar General of all the French missions in the vast Diocese of Quebec in North America, I have only accepted priests who were trained in the Seminary of the Holy Spirit, all of whom exceeded our expectations".

New Responsibilities

At the time of the suppression of the Jesuits, the Seminary of the Holy Spirit had produced about eight hundred Spiritans. After the suppression in 1773, The Propagation of the Faith in Rome asked the Congregation of the Holy Spirit to take charge of the Apostolic Prefectures of the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, Guyana and Saint Louis of Senegal.

Dying in order to be re-born

In 1792, the French revolutionaries took over the Seminary, the Congregation of the Holy Spirit was suppressed and its members dispersed. During the XVIII century, the Seminary formed more than 1,300 priests: around 100 of them went abroad to serve in Canada, the Far East and Africa. In 1804, Napoleon allowed the re-establishment of three missionary institutes, including the Spiritans, but in the wake of his serious disagreements with Pope Pius VII, he once again suppressed them in 1809. Finally, after the abdication of Napoleon, Louis XVIII approved the re-establishment of the Lazarists and Spiritans.

Rome gave its approval to the Rule and Statutes of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit in 1824. The revolution of 1830 provoked a further crisis: for the third time, the Seminary was closed and the sixty seven seminarians sent away. A former minister of the colonies pointed out the inevitable consequences that would flow from blocking off the source of clergy for the colonies: "At the stroke of a pen, the colonies have been deprived of the only establishment that could alleviate the dangers that will inevitably flow from the change in status of the slaves and promote the rights of coloured people".

The Seminary started again, but not for long. During a cholera epidemic in Paris, it was taken over as a hospital and was only able to start again as a seminary in 1835.