The Congregation of the Holy Spirit, officially named the Congregation of the Holy Spirit under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary (Latin: Congregatio Sancti Spiritus sub tutela Immaculati Cordis Beatissimae Virginis Mariae), is a religious congregation for men in the Catholic Church. Commonly known as the Spiritans, they are dedicated to serving the poor and marginalized.
The Spiritans were founded in Paris on Whit Sunday (Pentecost), 1703, by Claude Poullart des Places.
Claude Poullart des Places was born on 26 February 1679, in Rennes, the capital city of Brittany, France. He was the eldest child and only son of Francis des Places and Jeanne le Meneust. Claude was tutored at home before being enrolled at the age of nine or ten as a day student in the nearby Jesuit College of St. Thomas, thus beginning his lifelong association with the Society of Jesus.
Having opted for the priesthood, Claude Poullart des Places wanted to form a religious institute for young men who had vocations to become priests but were too poor to do so. In 1701 Claude Poullart began his studies for the priesthood, as a boarder at the Jesuit College in Paris. However, he soon left his college room to share lodgings with the poorer day students who often struggled to find food, lodgings, and facilities for their studies. With a dozen of such students, Poullart des Places opened the Seminary of the Holy Spirit. He became especially interested in such students, and supported them with his own funds and donations from friends. In 1707 Poullart was ordained a priest. His work grew rapidly; and the foundation developed.
After the founder's death, the Congregation of the Holy Spirit continued to progress. In 1765 the Holy See entrusted it with direct care of South American missions, in colonies such as French Guiana. Those in France served in various dioceses or alongside the de Montfort missionaries, due to the close friendship between Poullart and Louis de Montfort.
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The Congregation had trained 1,300 priests in the years leading up to 1792, when the seminary was suppressed by the French Revolution. After the French Revolution, only one member, James Bertout, remained. He had survived miraculously, through a series of vicissitudes - shipwreck on the way to his destined mission in French Guiana, enslavement by the Moors, and a sojourn in Senegal, where he had been sold to the English, who then ruled there.
On his return to France, after peace was restored to the Church, he re-established the congregation and continued its work. The congregation's numbers in Europe declined sharply until 1802, when the Napoleonic government allowed the seminary to reopen. The congregation was asked to supply missionary priests for work in the French colonies in Africa, the West Indies, and the Indian subcontinent.
In 1842, Francis Libermann had founded the "Society of the Holy Heart of Mary," a society dedicated to serve mainly the emancipated black slaves in the French colonies. In 1848, the Holy See requested Libermann to merge the relatively new Society of the Holy Heart of Mary with the older Congregation of the Holy Spirit, as they shared missions. Libermann was made first superior general of the united societies; he is credited with renewing the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, whose name became known as "...
The new superior general first concentrated on strengthening service to the old French colonies. He developed bishoprics and provided for the supply of clergy through the Seminary of the Holy Ghost. His disciples worked largely in Africa. Libermann recruited and educated missionaries, both lay and clerical. Father Libermann and his associates retained the African mission; gradually they established new Christian communities on the continent. By 1913, nearly 700 missionaries had died while serving in Africa.
Their work resulted in establishing the Diocese of Angola and the eight Vicariates of Senegambia, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Ubangi (or French Upper Congo), Loango (or French Lower Congo), on the West Coast, and Northern Madagascar, Zanzibar, Bagamoyo, on the East Coast. Besides the missions in Africa, the Congregation of the Holy Spirit started missions in Mauritius, Réunion, and the Rodriguez Islands. In the Western Hemisphere, they had missions in Trinidad, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti, and Amazonia.
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By the early 20th century the congregation was organized into the following provinces: France, Ireland, Portugal, United States, and Germany. The whole society was under the jurisdiction of the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda. The Spiritans' goal is always to establish a viable local faith community with its own leadership, while incorporating the language and customs of the people. Spiritans live in community and practice the evangelical counsels. The congregation's international headquarters is in Rome. The 2019 General Chapter was held in Tanzania.
Some noted English-speaking Spiritans in the late 20th-century include Fathers Vincent J. Donovan, Adrian Van Kaam, and Henry J. Koren. Father Donovan (1926-2000) wrote Christianity Rediscovered. He worked in Tanzania, most notably among the Maasai, from 1955 to 1973. During this period, the Maasai Creed was composed, with support from the Spiritans as a culturally relevant creed. Father Van Kaam was notable for his work in psychology and spirituality. He also wrote a key work on Venerable Father Libermann, one of the Spiritans' founders.
The Spiritans came to Britain 200 years after their foundation when the anti-Catholic government in France was starting to close convents and monasteries. In 1903 they rented Prior Park, a mansion near Bath in Somerset as a refuge abroad. In 1907 Castlehead at Grange-over-Sands, Lancashire, opened as a junior seminary. Father John Rimmer from Widnes was the first British Spiritan, having joined in France in 1894. He was appointed as Superior of Castlehead and gradually under his leadership the school flourished and boys were put through their secondary studies before going to France for the novitiate and training for the missionary priesthood.
In 1939, the Spiritans bought a property in Nottinghamshire to act as a senior seminary, but the house was requisitioned to provide a home for a school for partially sighted children who had been evacuated from Sussex during the Second World War. In 1940, 30 seminarians escaped from France aboard a Polish troopship. The refugees from France shared Castlehead for two years with the junior students. Then they moved to Sizergh Castle near Kendal and continued their studies for the priesthood.
On average, four new priests were ordained every year and posted to missions in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and East Africa. When the war ended, the senior students moved into Upton Hall near Newark. In 1947, a house was acquired in Bickley, Kent, and used as headquarters for the English Province and a centre for late vocations. Ex-servicemen were applying to join and some needed help to complete their studies prior to going to the novitiate. In the early 1990s with elderly missionaries living longer and returning home, the Bickley community centre of Provincial administration was converted to a retirement home. The Administration moved to Northwood.
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In 1956 the Holy Ghost Fathers set up a community at Uddingston on the outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland. In 1970 the Congregation transferred to the Old parish house and church in Carfin, where it continued as of 2022. After the Second Vatican Council the various missionary societies in England pooled their resources and started the Missionary Institute London (MIL) in 1969.
From the late 1980s there was a decision to concentrate on work with young people, in order to develop strong committed young catholic leaders. The "Just Youth" ministry was established in order to foster these aims. It provides chaplaincy facilities for several high schools in the Salford Diocese and undertakes outreach work in schools throughout the north of England. From the Salford community has also grown the group of Lay Spiritans. These are married or single Catholics inspired by the Spiritan way of life and wishing to share in it.
In 2001, two Lay Spiritans of the Salford community founded Revive, a voluntary social work agency committed to the long-term support of asylum seekers and refugees. This work, in conjunction with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford and the British Red Cross, involved the support of all asylum seekers, including the destitute whose asylum claims had been refused. Revive also had a significant role in the training of student social workers to work with asylum seekers and refugees in partnership with Manchester University, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Salford University. In 2009, a report from Caritas - Social Action highlighted the work of Revive as an example of good practice with asylum seekers and refugees in the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Lay Spiritan involvement in the management of Revive ceased in 2009.
In 1732 the first Spiritan missionaries arrived in North America under Father Louis Bouic, to work among the Miꞌkmaq and Acadians in French Canada. Unfortunately, the settlers and natives of this region were caught in the political and military clash between the French and the British. After arduous learning over eight years, he wrote the first Micmac grammar. Many more missionaries, such as John Le Loutre, came but later had to flee with the Micmacs as the British conquered these areas. In 1791, the British expelled the Spiritans, who were all from France, from Canada.
The Spiritan mission in Ghana was started in 1971 by a group of Irish Spiritans who left Nigeria after the civil war. With more than forty years of Spiritan mission, the Province of Ghana continues to flourish with more than 100 members working both at home and abroad. Ghana is a democratic constitutional republic divided into ten administrative regions, with a multi-ethnic population of around 24 million as of 2010. Fourteen percent of the population is estimated to be Catholic. Located along the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean, in West Africa, Ghana has a land mass of 238,535 km2, with 2,093 kilometres of international land borders.
In Ghana, Spiritans are ministering in sixteen parishes in nine of the eighteen dioceses. Many of the parishes are in a situation of primary evangelization in rural and deprived areas. The Province gives attention to basic and primary education in all of its twelve parishes. The Spiritan Technical Vocational School in Ada Nkwame, the Computer school in Kumasi, the Libermann Senior High School in Elubo, and the Spiritan University College in Ejisu are all examples of the Spiritan commitment to evangelization through education.
The first Spiritan house was opened in 1859 by Jules Leman. St. Michael's College, Dublin, was bought by Blackrock College in 1944 as a second feeder school with Willow Park. Holy Ghost Missionary College, bought by the spiritans in 1911, as a seminary, students studying theology and philosophy, and also taking degrees in UCD. From 1924 until 1933 the Holy Ghost Fathers studied theology at Blackrock Castle, before returning to Kimmage Manor. In 1917 the House of Philosophy moved to St.
Spiritans of the Irish Province and Spiritan Associates serve in some 20 countries including Ireland. They administer a number of parishes in west Dublin as well as one in the Diocese of Elphin. Notable Irish Spiritans include William Patrick Power, first head of Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin 1940-73, Denis Fahey, founder of Maria Duce, Aengus Finucane, who organised food shipments to the Ibo during the Biafra War, John C. O'Riordan, former Bishop of Kenema, Sierra Leone, Robert Ellison, current Bishop of Banjul, Gambia.
Spiritans in the 1840s dedicated themselves to working with newly freed slaves on the islands of Haiti, Mauritius and Réunion. Today, Mexican-born Spiritans outnumber Spiritan missionaries from other countries. The Dutch congregation was founded by Albert Sebire in 1905. The province of the United States, founded in 1873, had a novitiate and senior scholasticate at Ferndale in the Diocese of Hartford, and an apostolic college at Cornwells near Philadelphia. The Spiritans concentrated on the Pittsburgh area. In East Africa, where most of the American Spiritans now serve, they began to work in the 1860s by buying men and women out of slavery in Zanzibar.
They opened schools and hospitals, taught people marketable skills, and gave property to those who needed it. For decades the Spiritans worked closely with Katherine Drexel in the apostolate to African-Americans in the urban North and in small towns and cities of the South and Southwest. The Spiritans in America concentrate on work among immigrants, black parishes, and education in Duquesne University and Holy Ghost Preparatory School, near Philadelphia. Historically, they have sent missionaries to Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Puerto Rico, Latin America, and Ethiopia. As of 2022 Spiritans are focusing on Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, and Taiwan.
In 1964 there was a separation at the Mississippi River between a Western Province and an Eastern Province, but both provinces reunited. In 2012 the province established the Spiritan Office for Mission Advancement(SOMA)to animate the Congregations mission works. Economic and community Development: sustainable farming, women's sewing cooperative, parish bakeries, women's empowerment. The Spiritans arrived in Vietnam in September 2007.
The Catholic Bishop of Makurdi Diocese, Most Rev Wilfred ANAGBE, CMF, has revealed that the Holy Ghost Fathers, also known as Spiritans, had inspired many of them to become catholic priests. The Bishop made the revelation during a Mass he officiated to open the 3rd Provincial Chapter of the Spiritans of the Nigeria North Province of the Holy Ghost Fathers with the Theme: Retracing our Spiritan Roots and Faithfulness to Our Identity. The opening Mass was said at the St. Bishop Anagbe said the history of twelve dioceses in the Central Nigeria and North- East regions of the country cannot be told without the mention of the Holy Ghost Fathers.
He advised the Chapter Capitulants (delegates) to pray and evaluate their ministry strategies in such a way that they would keep on to the tradition of their forefathers. He called for the spirit of collaborative ministry which would help them to achieve a lot for the good of the church by the power of the Holy Spirit. He said the Holy Spirit which led one of their founders, Francis Poullart des Places, to start the congregation even when he was just a lay person, of just 24 years, would continue to lead them to do great things for the good of humanity if they believe and trust in God.
The Holy Ghost Fathers have been in Kastern Nigeria for about eighty-five years. Arriving originally from France in 1885, the Roman Catholic missionaries, exerted a considerable influence far out of proportion to their number. But despite that they had become a factor to be reckoned with ever since, their missionary activity has scarcely been studied systematically. One principal reason for this has been the reluctance of the Roman Catholic authorities to permit scholars to use their private archives in Paris.
In the last few years, however, the Roman Catholic authorities seem to have relaxed their one-hundred-year rule which has often been invoked to deny bone fide researchers access to the archival source materials. It is perhaps important to point out that the archival materials are still jealously guarded. During my research, for example, I was not permitted to examine certain dossiers perceived by the Archivist as “sensitive” and “not proper for public use.”
The Spiritans core mission was focused on evangelizing the poor and less privileged, centering on building an institution of God that promotes growth (integral formation) and a strong research culture. They emphasized on human development, action for justice, peace and participation in service. In essence, the Spiritans preached about the love and compassion of Jesus. They believe in building a more just-like world by serving those in need. Furthermore, the Spiritans play other diverse roles involving education, social work and spiritual guidance. They were credible for the establishment of schools, promoting academic and religious structure that helped individuals build a strong sense of community among themselves and the people they served.
Religious brothers in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, play a vital role in the church and society by service, education, spiritual guidance and contribute to the well being of the individuals. Subsequently, the Spiritans were said to have faced issues in spiritual welfare, moral and ethical dilemmas, faith, finding purpose, as well as external conflicts such as navigating community dynamics. It was stated that solving these problems requires finding hope and building resilience in the face of adversity.
According to Mr Evidence Elvis, ”the Catholic Holy Ghost Fathers are called Spiritans, CSSp”, they are a form of religious priest that is mostly associated with the Holy Spirit teaching. He also stated that the priests take vows of chastity, obedience and poverty.
They were 4 missionaries in all: Fr. Joseph Lutz (32 years old), Fr. John Horne (27), Br. Hermas Huck (20), and Jean-Gotto (28). Do you know that their original destination was not Onitsha? That the missionaries were French made matters worse. On the 5th of December 1885, they were brought to the obi of Onitsha, Obi Anazonwu, who offered them a piece of land to settle.
If the missionaries had succeeded in reaching Lokoja as they had planned, Lord Luggard would not have later stopped them from evangelising Northern Nigeria. Do you now see why it is unwise to discriminate against anyone based on religious or belief differences? There is enough space for all to thrive. History everywhere is full of mistakes and tears.
The Spiritan is a religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic church. This Congregation of the Holy Spirit was founded in 1703, by Claude Poullart des Places. This training was originally intended for seminarians, but was later merged with the Spiritans that worked with over 60 countries focusing on evangelism, social outreach and education.
Spiritans in Mission: A One-Minute Introduction
Table: Key Figures and Events in the History of the Holy Ghost Fathers
| Figure/Event | Description |
|---|---|
| Claude Poullart des Places | Founder of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit in 1703 |
| French Revolution (1792) | Suppression of the Spiritan seminary |
| James Bertout | Member who re-established the congregation after the French Revolution |
| Francis Libermann | Founder of the Society of the Holy Heart of Mary; merged with the Spiritans in 1848 |
| 1885 | Arrival of Spiritan missionaries in Eastern Nigeria |
| Spiritan Mission | Focused on evangelizing the poor and less privileged, and building institutions that promote growth and research |
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