The Mother house (Maison Mère)

The site at 30 Rue Lhomond (formerly known as Rue des Postes), Paris V, was acquired by Fr Louis Bouïc on 4 June 1731, i.e. 22 years after the death of the Founder, Fr Claude Poullart des Places. The money came from a legacy left by Fr Lebègue of Saint-Médard parish church in Rue Mouffetard, formerly known as Saint-Fiacre Church . The legal challenge by Fr Lebègue's relatives, the University, the Jansenists and others threatened to cause the suppression of the Community but, due to good legal advice and the support of some influential friends of the project, this protracted opposition – eleven years in fact – finally led to the first official recognition of the Community by the Government and by the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr de Vintimille, on 30 July 1734. The legacy stipulated that the seminary be situated in Saint Médard Parish and that a certain number of masses be said in Fr Lebègue's memory by the members of the Spiritan community. This old church still stands in Rue Médard and is worth a visit if only for the quaint notice affixed there by King Louis XVI: “ Defense de faire des miracles ici” (It is forbidden to perform miracles here). There had been complaints of traffic jams due to it being alleged that someone was performing miracles at that church!

Once the property was acquired from the Scottish owner, Mr Davisson, the seminarians moved in to the old houses on 1 January 1732 . The property boasted a vineyard, hence the name by which Rue Rataud was known in those days: Impasse des vignes . Work began on the 4-storey wing to the left along the Impasse de Vignes, the main building used by the seminarians and others afterwards. This building was modified and extended over the years. The discovery of a quarry in the courtyard which supplied suitable building stones and sand facilitated the building programme. The necessary funds were secured from wealthy donors who had been persuaded by Fr Bouïc to support this worthy project on behalf of the impoverished scholars who were committed to serving the poor. The day to day needs of the community were financed mainly from the contributions solicited daily by the saintly Fr Pierre Caris who, as bursar for 45 years, was known as ‘the poor priest of Paris '.

Fr Louis Bouïc, having put the Congregation on a solid footing as to its legal recognition, its site and premises, and safeguarded its total commitment to solid Catholic teaching, died on 2 January 1763 . By then he had seen the first graduates of the seminary set out for the missions in Canada and Cochin China .

Fr François Becquet, who took over charge in on 4 February1763, set out to continue the necessary expansion of the buildings and to provide an adequate chapel. Needing extra funds, he applied to the Treasurer General for a subvention. Work began in 1769 but, due continual problems with the Treasurer General about finance and approval of plans, the project took eleven years to complete. Several noted architects were consulted by the government for their approval, notably the German, Soufflot, who had designed the Pantheon and Jean Chalgrin who had designed the Arc de Triomphe. The work was not completed till 1778 and much of the credit for the success of the project must go to Fr Becquet who never gave up in spite of interminable obstacles. He persuaded many private benefactors to come to the aid of this worthy project in favour of the seminary for poor students many of whom would serve in the French colonies The solemn blessing by the Bishop of Clermont took place on 16 July 1780 .

Symbolic of the orientation of the congregation towards preaching the gospel in foreign lands, François-Joseph Duret was commissioned to execute a large sculpture on the outside of the chapel depicting the work of missionaries preaching the gospel and performing baptism. Unfortunately the narrowness of the street and the elevation of the sculpture prevents this splendid work from being seen properly.

Late in 1778 Fr Jean-Marie Duflos was elected Superior . As he belonged to a well-off family he had, on entrance, to renounce his family inheritance in order to qualify as a ‘poor scholar'.

Since 1777 the Seminary was charged with supplying priests for the French colony of Guiana in South America . As a result of this, they were seen to have an official status in the colonial administration which made it less difficult to obtain government aid. The two priests who had set off for Guiana – one of them being Fr Jacques Duflos, a nephew of the Superior – found themselves instead accidentally landing in Senegal where the French had also a tentative presence. This led to the other, Fr Dominique de Glicourt, being appointed Prefect Apostolic of Senegal. This was the first involvement of the Congregation in Africa .

The 1778 new wing having provided space for the much needed administrative offices, an extra building was erected on the Rue des Postes between the chapel entrance and the neighbouring English College to act as a home for returned missionaries and infirm members of the society. The society was also called on to help in the conduct of senior seminaries in Meaux and Verdun . So all seemed set for a period of expansion at home and abroad. Unfortunately the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 abruptly put paid to all this.

Sixty new students had presented themselves in October 1790 but as the Directors one and all refused to take the schismatic Oath of the Civil Constitution, the Seminary was deprived of government aid. Several memoranda were submitted to the authorities petitioning permission to remain in the buildings that they had constructed at their own cost and labour for a noble purpose. To one petition they concluded with the pathetic words: “Should these our pleadings still evoke no response, let our motto for the future be the poet's lament: Nos patres fines et dulcia linquimus arva . (We leave the dear earth and frontiers of our fatherland). A raid by a mob of sans culottes on the Eudist house next door resulted in thirty-two of their members being massacred. The Spiritans may have been saved from a similar fate by the fact that the contents of the cellar distracted the attention of the raiders. Fr Duflos gave orders to all to don secular dress and try to find refuge wherever they could. On 18 October 1792 the National assembly suppressed all religious congregations and ordered the sale of their houses. In the inventory of their goods which they were ordered to supply it is mentioned that their library contained 10,258 volumes. The church was sealed as all religious services in Paris were forbidden.

In 1793 the archives of the seminary were confiscated and transferred to the national library where they have remained ever since. Fr Duflos, a few directors and some students had remained on in the building as it took some time for the government to find a bidder for such a huge complex. On 4 June 1793 the premises were leased by the government to M Pierre-André Angar, a former bailiff and auctioneer, for 2,600 livres. By a friendly agreement, members of the staff were allowed to stay on as lodgers. After Angar's death his wife bought the complete property for 40,683 livres . She continued to allow some members of the seminary including the superior, Fr Duflos, to retain their rooms. She sublet portions of the buildings for various purposes. A factory for producing hand-painted wallpaper was installed in a section of the main wing. To provide the necessary space, the entrepreneur installed an extra storey over the large high-roofed dining hall. This remained in place until the reconstruction of the house under the direction of the department of Beaux Arts in 1957. As a reminder of those troubled times, the entrance door to that improvised storey is still to be seen high up in the dining room.

An Irish priest, Fr James McDermott, who had been conducting a successful school in the Irish College , took out a lease on portion of the seminary buildings where he continued to run his school. His assistant, Dr MacMahon, sublet the lease to the University when the school ceased to operate and the University installed there the newly-founded École Normale Superieur. When that lease ran out, the École Normale negotiated a new 9-year lease in 1817 with the Angar family. It was this lease which blocked the repossessing of the former Mother house by Fr Jacques Bertout as he set about re-establishing the Seminary and the Congregation. To counteract the force of this lease Fr Bertout contacted the Angar family representatives and got them to sign a legally-drafted statement of intention to sell the property to Fr Bertout “in the name and in the interest of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit the premises of the former Seminary, situated at No 26 Rue des Postes for the sum of 103,000 francs”. That document was later to prove decisive in Fr Bertout's attempt to regain possession of the premises. It was also to confirm that possession of the building was to be linked with the work of providing priests for the French colonies.

The seminary chapel escaped serious damage during the Revolution and its aftermath. It was used for a period as the headquarters of a ‘patriotic club'. Some paintings and the tabernacle were confiscated and some sculptures were defaced. One of the former directors, Fr Jedan-Baptist Boudot, by then acting as a priest in the diocese of Paris , discreetly opened the church for religious purposes again but the public were not admitted to these ceremonies until after 1800.

Fr Jacques Bertout CSSp, having been in exile in Yorkshire during the Revolution and its aftermath, returned to Paris in 1802 and, due to his tenacious and heroic efforts, the Congregation had once more been given legal status in 1816. The buildings and grounds were eventually recovered on 8 December 1822 . Some Irish students had by then joined the restored seminary which had been officially commissioned by the Government to supply priests for the French colonies. From 1817 the seminary had operated in No 15 Rue des Champs. Fr Henry Power from Cloyne, Co Cork , was co-opted in 1822 as one of the four directors of the restored society which had received Papal recognition in 1824. This official recognition by Rome removed the society from direct control by the Archbishop of Paris as heretofore.

The property was repossessed by the Government during the 1830 Revolution and the cholera epidemic in 1832. Restored once more in a damaged condition to the Congregation in 1835, the work of the seminary was resumed there but at a much reduced rate. A special impetus was given to the quality of teaching in the seminary by the arrival there of Fr Mathurin Gaultier who, as well as enthusing his students, attracted a galaxy of scholarly writers, among them Migne, and these availed of the extensive and quality library he had amassed. A historic ceremony which took place in the seminary was the ordination, on 19 September 1840 , of the first three Senegalese priests who had been sponsored from an early age by Mother Javouhey. The seminary badly needed a fresh transfusion on a grand scale. The amalgamation in 1848 with Fr Libermann's Society of the Holy Heart of Mary providentially provided the required impetus to the Congregation and the Seminary.

Changes at Rue Lhomond

For a brief period after the ‘Fusion' in 1848 the students of the Colonial Seminary and those destined for the Congregation did their studies together at Rue Lhomond. Père Jules Leman, future founder of the Irish Province of the Congregation, was one of the professors. Eventually the Spiritan seminarians returned to Notre Dame du Gard, which had succeeded La Neuville as the house of formation for Fr Libermann's society. With the purchase of the extensive property of Chevilly on the outskirts of Paris in 1863 it became the main house of formation for all members of the society until the setting up of senior seminaries in the separate Provinces.

Rue Lhomond remained the Mother house of the Congregation, and the Colonial Seminary was located there until transferred in 1954 to La Croix-Valmer beside the Mediterranean. Although the Generalate administration was transferred to Rome in 1963, 30 Rue Lhomond is still known as the Mother house. The French Provincialate team resides there today and it houses many other services. In particular, it provides a welcome opportunity for Spiritans to visit places in the Paris area connected with origins of the Congregation, and indeed to make contact with the living tradition of the Congregation.

In July 1861 it was decided to remodel the chapel at Rue Lhomond. The altar was located at the other end – where it has remained – and a niche was opened in the new sanctuary to receive a replica of the statue of Our Lady of Victories. This work was supervised by M Eugene Schwindenhammer, a brother of the Superior General, who had remained on as an associate member of the Congregation. One of his skilled helpers, Br Eugène Dèvena, was to construct a similar niche in other chapels of the Congregation including that of Blackrock College , Dublin , where his artistic execution of that feature has always been much admired. The interior of the church at Rue Lhomond was originally of a white marble colour. Various changes of décor have altered that over the years. A small gallery was installed at the rear of the redesigned church and it opens on to Fr Libermann's bedroom where the Libermann Oratory is today. It was there that he died as the Latin Vespers were being sung below in the chapel. It is said that he expired as the words Et exaltavit humiles ‘And He raised up the lowly' were being sung.

In early 1900s under the Combes regime, the Congregation and the Mother house were again in danger of suppression. It was being claimed by government officials that the original congregation was granted letters patent in 1726-34 and, although reconstituted in 1816, had later been replaced by the society founded by Fr Libermann and therefore, as that society had never gained legal status, its property belonged to the government. Happily, the Superior General, Mgr Alexander Le Roy, succeeded in proving that, in spite of some of the documents produced that seemed to show the contrary, the congregation which had prevailed was definitely the original society approved in 1734 and that the members of Fr Libermann's society had been subsumed into it in 1848.

Changes were being made continually to the main building. A covered gallery linking the church with the dining room was constructed in 1922 and later a covered walk over that gallery was added. The original wing along Rue Rataud, built by Fr Bouic in 1732-34, was extended in 1927. Further extensions were added in 1932 to accommodate a busy Procure supplying goods to the missions etc and more offices were later added in that area. A part of the grounds was ceded to the École Normale and a further portion to the city authorities for the extension of Rue Erasme at the rear of the grounds.

In 1967 the remains of the Venerable Libermann were transferred from Chevilly to Paris and re-interred in the chapel at Rue Lhomond. Finally, in 1988, a memorial to Poullart des Places was erected in the chapel. As he had been buried in a common grave, his bones remain unidentified in the catacombs at Denfert Rocherau.

The local area of the Latin Quarter

There had been some 40 religious communities in the Latin Quarter in the time of Poullart des Places. One by one these communities were closed, either by their society or by a hostile government administration. The Spiritan Motherhouse seems to be the only survivor. To the right of the Motherhouse is the École Normale Superieur. Previously the English College had been located there. Next is Madame Curie Hospital , dedicated to the Polish scientist who, in Paris , initiated the therapeutic use of radium. Formerly that area had been occupied by the Eudist priests who were massacred during the Revolution. Next is the area formerly occupied by the Jesuit college – Saint-Geneviève. The building was confiscated by the government in 1906 and has been demolished, apart from the beautiful chapel which is well worth a visit. It is now run by priests of the Marronite rite, who are in communion with Rome . To the right of Rue Lhomond is Rue des Irlandais – the street of the Irish – (formerly known as Rue Cheval Vert – the street of the Green Horse) the site of the former Irish College . Under the direction of the Irish Vincentians from 1858, this College had a part to play in the beginnings of the Irish Province of the Spiritans. When clerical students ceased to be sent to Paris on the outbreak of World War II, this college was leased to the Polish hierarchy and Pope John Paul II spent some time there as a priest during his post-graduate studies. In recent years, at the expense of the Irish government, the College has been refurbished and is today an active Irish cultural centre. The previous Irish College – the so-called ‘ Lombard College ' – was in Rue des Carmes en route to Notre Dame Cathedral. The little church of the college, dedicated to St Ephraim, still stands beside the Pantheon .

The ancient Abbey of Saint-Geneviève was demolished after the Revolution leaving only the ‘ Clovis Tower ' and the famous library, now incorporated into Bibliothéque Saint-Geneviève . The lycée, launched in 1796 and named l 'École centrale du Panthèon , was meant to be the flagship of the Revolution but over the years its name was changed to suit successive political regimes. Eventually, after six such changes of name, it reverted in 1873 to the name Lycée Henri IV. It was mainly a boarding school but admitted day students. Edward Barron from Waterford – ‘unsung hero of the mission to Africa ' – and his brother William attended this lycée 1818-20. They boarded at the nearby Scots' College, which had been, since the Revolution, merely a hostel for all manner of English-speaking students doing their studies in various colleges in Paris . The Lycée catered for the elite. The Barrons had acquired a good knowledge of French while attending St Edmund's College in Ware , England . This fluency in French proved invaluable when Dr Barron linked up with Fr Libermann and was responsible for introducing his missionaries to Africa in 1842. Dr Barron's meetings with Libermann took place at La Neuville.

Notre Dame des Victoires (Our Lady of Victories)

The church in Places des Petits Pères (2 Arrondissment) was built by the Augustinians who then known as the Petit Pères. Begun in 1629, it took 110 years to complete! As they had persuaded Louis XIII to grant a subsidy, he stipulated that the church be dedicated to Our Lady of Victories in thanksgiving for his victory over the Protestants at La Rochelle as that victory had safeguarded the unity of the kingdom. No doubt in this demand he was influenced by the establishment by Pope Pius V of a feast of Our Lady of Victory in 1572 to celebrate the famous victory over the Turks at Lepanto. A statue of Our Lady of Victories was installed in the Augustinian church in place of the former image of Our Lady of Savoy venerated under the title Refuge of Sinners.

Suppressed by the Revolution, the church was used by the Stock Exchange and the statue of Our Lady of Victories was lost. It was replaced in 1809 by the present statue when the building was restored for worship as a parish church. In 1832 Fr Charles-Éléonore Dufriche Desgenettes was appointed pastor of that parish – “the last of parishes” as he described it. “Even on the great festivals its church was deserted, the sacraments and practices of devotion neglected...” He was so depressed by his total lack of success that he decided to resign. He had learned of the new devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary but considered it of no practical help to him. On Saturday 3 December 1836 as he reached the Sanctus when celebrating mass at the altar of Our Lady of Victories, he heard a voice say: “Consecrate your parish to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin to obtain the conversion of sinners”. He did nothing about it and told nobody of his experience. The same happened again two years later. On 11 December he announced at Mass that there would be a meeting that evening to pray for the conversion of sinners. To his amazement the church was filled. He decided to put this experience to a further test by asking for prayers for the conversion of a noted Voltairian agnostic. That conversion occurred. Such incidents multiplied. So Fr Desgenettes decided, on 12 January 1837 and with the approval of Archbishop Hyacinth de Quelen, to form a parish confraternity dedicated to Our Lady Refuge of Sinners. The devotion spread and many conversions were recorded in similar circumstances. An appeal was made to the Pope, Gregory XVI, for his special approval. The Pope was so impressed by the reports of what was happening in France and elsewhere that he issued a motu proprio raising this parish association into an arch confraternity for the Universal Church . A manual was published recording the favours received through the intercession of Our Lady of Victories, Refuge of Sinners. The shrine became a centre for requests from all over the world. Parishes and churches were dedicated to Our Lady of Victories, among the first being those in Booterstown and Rathmines in Dublin . A register of associates was started and by the time Fr Desgenettes died in 1860 about 20,000,000 names from all over the world had been inscribed. Some 36,000 votive plaques today recall spiritual victories of various types down the years.

Already, on 2 February 1839, two clerical students at Saint-Sulpice, Frederick Le Vavasseur from Reunion (Bourbon then) and Eugene Tisserant, who had Haiti connections, had come, unbeknownst to each other, to ask for prayers that a society might be formed to take on the pastoral care of the recently liberated black slaves in these countries. From this initiative came the founding of the Society of the Holy Heart of Mary, headed by the convert Jew, Francis Libermann. A few days after his ordination in Amiens , Fr Libermann went to Paris to offer mass at the Shrine ( 25 September 1841 ). Present on that occasion were Fr Desgenettes, the pastor, and Frs Le Vavasseur and Tisserant. Fr Libermann's society soon became closely linked to Our Lady of Victories and some members of his society served as assistant pastors at the shrine.

Then there happened the extraordinary coincidence of Fr Libermann's coming from Amiens to Paris and discussing with Fr Desgenettes his problem of having so many willing young missionary priests and having no mission to send them to, and of Irish-born Bishop Edward Barron coming to the shrine the next day to pray for missionaries who would volunteer for his vast mission of “The Two Guineas” in West Africa. This was to be the catalyst that led to the extensive involvement of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit with Africa . In fact, it could be said that it marked the beginnings of the great modern mission to Black Africa. Dr Barron made a written dedication of West Africa to Our Lady of Victories and this document in French is one of the prized treasures at the Shrine. All priests of the Congregation tried to make sure that they said mass at this shrine before leaving for the missions.

Among those who ministered from time to time at the shrine was Père Jules Leman, founder of the Irish Province of the Congregation, who at that time was a professor at the senior seminary in Notre Dame du Gard. He conducted the Senior Scholasticate choir at the Shrine when Pope Pius IX sent a legate to officially crown the statue of Our Lady of Victories in 1853. The original crown was then presented to the Congregation to adorn the replica of the statue of Our Lady of Victories at Notre Dame du Gard. Père Leman was in charge of the Liturgy and singing on that occasion. When bursar in the French Seminary in Rome, and later as founder and superior of Blackrock College, he was happy to see the new churches in both communities dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Refuge of Sinners – ‘Our Lady of Victories' for short because of where the original shrine was located in the church dedicated to Our Lady of Victories in Place des Petits Pères in Paris.

Chevilly Larue

Part of the property of the Canons of the Cathedral of Paris, Chevilly was acquired in the middle of the 18 th century for the Marquise de Pompadour. A hunting lodge was built there that is now the present château. After the Revolution a succession of proprietors lived there. One owner, Baron Schikler, having a passion for horses, built extensive stables but, due to severe flooding in 1861, he decided to sell the 22 hectares and the buildings. They were bought in 1863 by the Congregation and the seminarians were transferred there the following year from Notre Dame du Gard and Rue Lhomond. This was the seminary where the majority of Spiritan aspirants were trained, including the Irish, from then until 1914. Much manual labour was performed by them, especially in constructing drains to cope with periodic serious flooding. The remains of Fr Libermann were transferred there in 1865 from Notre Dame du Gard and housed in a little Gothic chapel that was a centre of great devotion for the students for 100 years. The remains of Fr Libermann were moved to Rue Lhomond in 1967. The little chapel, known as Le Tombeau , is now a shrine to the deceased missionaries of the Congregation.

Chevilly suffered much from the upheavals caused in 1870 by the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune, and during the two World Wars. The students and staff had to vacate the area for periods. Refugees and orphans were located there. Most of the original buildings were demolished as more suitable premises and a church were gradually built being completed in the 1930s. Part of the original 22 hectares was sold in 1976 and that is now a public park.

Students from the various provinces of the Congregation did their studies there until facilities were provided in their home countries. Notable among the Irish contingent was Bishop Joseph Shanahan who started his theology course in Chevilly before being called on to act as Prefect in Merville College . It was in Chevilly that he did his novitiate during the famous year 1896-97 when three separate novitiate groups had to be formed consequent on a directive from Rome affecting all religious congregations, namely that religious profession must be made prior to ordination. Shanahan's spiritual notebook, written in Chevilly, is extant – a very revealing document which was considered of special value in the preparations for promoting his cause for canonisation. Among the Irish who taught in the seminary was future Bishop John O'Gorman, first Vicar Apostolic of Sierra Leone. Some Irish scholastics and French personnel who served in Ireland were buried in the community cemetery.

Among the services which have been transferred to Chevilly in recent times are the famous old Spiritan library and the General Archives of the Congregation, both till then located at the Mother house in Rue Lhomond. Chevilly has been the venue for General Chapters, retreats, seminars etc. Today it is a home for retired Spiritans with a nursing home and is a centre for all manner of Spiritan activities and conferences.

 

Further reading in English sources:

Claude Poullart des Places

The Spiritual Writings of Father Claude Poullart des Places Founder of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost edited by Henry J Koren CSSp STD Duquesne University , Pittsburgh , PA , 1959

Claude-Francis Poullart des Places Writings, Spiritan Generalate, Clivo di Cinna, 195 00 136 Rome

Led by the Spirit The Life and Work of Claude Poullart des Places Founder of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit by Seán P. Farragher, Paraclete Press, Dublin, 1992, ISBN 0 946639 08 6

Riches to Rags Claude-Poullart des Places by Fr Michael J Troy CSSp, 2005, Spiritans: The Congregation of the Holy Ghost, 121 Victoria Park, Toronto , ON M4E3S2

Spiritan Papers Nos 3,4,5,7, 22, Generalate CSSp, Clivo di Cinna, 195, 00136 Rome

Jacques M Bertout

To the Ends of the Earth A General History of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost by Henry J Koren CSSp Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh, 1983 pp106ff, 121ff, 134, 239, 278, 300

The Holy Ghost Fathers in England 1792-1945 by Fr Wilfrid Gandy CSSp, pp2ff

The Venerable Francis Libermann

Coping with the Darkness –Fifteen days of prayer with Francis Libermann by Arsène Aubert CSSp, Paraclete Press, Blackrock College Dublin, 2006

Where Are You? A short retreat for men and women in hiding A few steps into the open with Francis Libermann Presented by Bernard. A. Kelly CSSp, The Spiritans, 121 Victoria Park Ave , Toronto , Ontario

A Light to the Gentiles The Life-story of the Venerable Francis Libermann by Adrian L van Kaam CSSp, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 1959

Star of Jacob, The story of the Venerable Francis Liberm ann by Helen Walker Homan, Paraclete Press, Bromley , Kent , 1953

Life began at Forty The second conversion of Francis Libermann CSSp by Bernard Kelly CSSp, Paraclete Press, Dublin , 1983

Francis Libermann Convert Jew – Apostle of Africa by Michael O'Carroll CSSp Clonmore and Reynolds , Dublin and London 1953

The Spiritual teaching of Ven. Francis Libermann by Bernard J. Kelly, CSSp, Dublin , Clonmore and Reynolds Ltd 1953

Francis Mary Paul Libermann, Jew according to the Gospel by Mgr Jean Gay. 1977. Translated by Fr Walter J Van de Putte, CSSp

Spiritan Papers Nos 2,3,5,6,8,10,13,20,21,22, Spiritan Generalate, 195 Clivo di Cinna, Rome

Essays on the Spiritan Charism and on Spiritan History by Henry J. Koren, CSSp, Spiritus Press, Bethel Park , PA1990

Blessed Jacques Desiré Laval

The Soul of an Apostle – Prayer with Bl. Jacques Laval CSSp , Paraclete Press, Blackrock College , Dublin , 2006

Jacques Désiré Laval The “Saint” of Mauritius by Fr J Fitzsimmons, Print origination, Liverpool , 1972

Blessed Jacques Désiré Laval Apostle of Mauritius by Michael O'Carroll CSSp, 1978 Dublin

Père Laval by Paul Bernier, translation by Michael O'Carroll, Generalate House, Clivo di Cinna 195, 1 00136 Rome .

The Holy Ghost Fathers in England 1792-1945 by Fr Wilfrid Gandy CSSp pp 5ff

Spiritan Papers Nos 7, 9, 195 Clivo di Cinna, Rome

Blessed Daniel Brottier

Spiritan Papers No 17, Spiritan Generalate, Clivo di Cinna 195, Rome

A man for our age Blessed Daniel Brottier Friend of Youth by Gerald Fitzgerald CSSp, Print orientation Liverpool 1984

Père Daniel Brottier CSSp . by Fr J Mullins CSSp, Holy Ghost Fathers, Kimmage, Dublin , 1940

Bishop Edward Barron

Edward Barron 1801-1854 Unsung hero of the Mission to Africa by Seán Farragher CSSp, Paraclete Press, ISBN No 0 946 639 59 0 Dublin , 2004

Père Jules Leman

Père Leman Educator and Missionary 1826-1880 Founder of Blackrock College

by Seán P Farragher, ISBN 0-946639-06-X Paraclete Press, Dublin , 1988

Blackrock College Annuals 1954-1980,

Bishop Joseph Shanahan CSSp

Bishop Shanahan of Southern Nigeria by John P. Jordan CSSp, Clonmore and Reynolds, 1948, Dublin, and Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd, London; The Second Burial of Bishop Shanahan , by Desmond Forristal 1990, Veritas ISBN 1 853190 195 4 ; Bishop Shanahan and his Missionary Family, Vols 1 & 2 by Sister Mary Brigid; Bishop Joseph Shanahan CSSp Selected Stu dies by Seán P. Farragher CSSp ISBN 0946639 49 3 Paraclete Press, Dublin 2002; A Man for Everybody The story of Bishop Joseph Shanahan by Edith Dynan MSHR, ISBN 185390 563 1, Veritas, Dublin, 2001

 

Frank Duff

Frank Duff by Robert Bradshaw,1985 Montfort publications, Bay Shore , NY11706

Frank Duff – a Living Autobiography ed. Msgr Charles T Moss, Maria Legionis, Dublin-Philadelphia-Manila 1983

The Official Handbook of the Legion of Mary , Concilium Legionis Mariae, De Montfort House, Dublin

A Man for our time by Hilde Firtel, Mercier Press, Cork 1985

Victory through Mary by Frank Duff Predicanda publications, De Montfort House, Dublin 1981

Frank Duff – the Blackrock College connection by Seán Farragher CSSp, Blackrock College archive (MS)

 

Spiritan Places

The Mother House in Paris – 250th Anniversary of 30 Rue Lhomond cf. Spiritan News No 40 1982

For a detailed account of how the Spiritan Seminary fared during the French Revolution cf. Spiritan Life No 1 December 1989, The Spiritan Generalate Clivo di Cinna 195 00136 Roma

 

Our Lady of Victories

History of the Arch confraternity of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the conversion of sinners and Manual of Instructions and Prayers for use among its associates by the Rev. C.E. Duffriche Desgenettes, PP, translated from the French by a Catholic Curate, Dublin: William Powell, 68 Thomas-Street 1843

To the Ends of the Earth by Henry J Koren CSSp, Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh 1983

 

A year-by-year account of how the Revolution affected the seminary and its members is to be

found in Vol 1 of Spiritan Life pp 9-44, Generalate , Clivo di Cinna, Rome , December 1989

Cf. Edward Barron 1801-1854 Unsung hero of the Mission to Africa pp17ff

Cf. Bishop Joseph Shanahan Selected Studies p.38f, 46ff