UC-NRLF 
 
 
 THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA 
 STUDIES IN AMERICAN CHURCH HISTORY 
 
 Vol. Ill 
 
 SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH 
 Its Foundation, Organization and Success 
 
 (1822-1922) 
 
 By 
 
 EDWARD JOHN HICKEY, S.T.B., M.B.A. (Harvard) 
 
 A DISSERTATION 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OP PHILOSOPHY OF THE CATHOLIC 
 UNIVERSITY OP AMERICA IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE 
 
 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE 
 DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 1922 
 
GIFT OF 
 
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA 
 STUDIES IN AMERICAN CHURCH HISTORY 
 
 Vol. Ill 
 
 THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH 
 Its Foundation, Organization and Success 
 
 (1822-1922) 
 
 By 
 EDWARD JOHN RICKEY, S.T.B., M.B.A. (Harvard) 
 
 A DISSERTATION 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE CATHOLIC 
 UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE 
 
 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE 
 DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 1922 
 
r <x / 
 
 Nihil Obstat. 
 
 t THOMAS J. SHAHAN, 
 
 Censor Deputatus. 
 Imprimatur. 
 
 t MICHAEL J. CURLEY, 
 
 Archiepiscopus Baltimorensis. 
 Baltimorae, die XXVI Maii, 1922. 
 
 Copyright 1922, by Edward J. Hickey. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface v 
 
 Chapter I. The Historical Background 1 
 
 Chapter II. The Foundation of the Society . . 10 
 
 Chapter III. The Organization of the Society 26 
 
 Chapter IV. The Administration of the Society .... 46 
 
 Chapter V. Ecclesiastical and Lay Cooperation .... 61 
 
 Chapter VI. The Growth of the Society 109 
 
 Chapter VII. The Success of the Society 130 
 
 Chapter VIII. Allied and Subordinate Activities 154 
 
 Chapter IX. Critical Essay on the Sources 163 
 
 Conclusion 183 
 
 Appendix 187 
 
 4828 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The American Church History Seminar at the Catholic 
 University of America is not principally an informational 
 course of study but a training ground in historical research 
 by personal work on the part of the student guided by 
 the professor. The work done comprises an introduction to 
 the study of ecclesiastical history together with a special sub- 
 ject of research for each student. In this seminar the sources 
 and materials for the study of American Chureh history 
 necessarily receive special attention. 
 
 During my first year at the University, Dr. Guilday drew 
 my attention to the study of those Foreign Mission societies 
 which had so liberally contributed to the Church of the United 
 States, and to their published collections of sources which were 
 rich in historical material for our Church. 
 
 Since 1915, the Director of the Seminar has had the plan 
 in mind of encouraging some of the students to devote them- 
 selves to a study of these published collections, and also 
 to research-study in the archives of these Societies. His re- 
 search year in the Archives of Propaganda impressed upon 
 him the necessity of similar researches in the Archives of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Faith of Lyons and 
 Paris, and in those of the Leopoldine Association of Vienna 
 and the Ludwig-Missionsverein of Munich. 
 
 As a member of the Seminar during the scholastic year 
 (1919-1920), and as Dr. Guilday 's companion in Europe dur- 
 ing the long vacation of 1920, I had splendid opportunities 
 of following out his plan. Before departing, I consulted Mgr. 
 Freri, the American Delegate of the Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Faith. I found him in cordial sympathy with 
 the project, and he provided me with a letter to M. Alex- 
 andre Guasco, the General Secretary of the Central Council at 
 Paris. I called upon M. Guasco in June, 1920, and was 
 
vi Preface 
 
 received with his customary urbanity. He permitted me In 
 study in the office of the Central Council and facilitated my 
 work with his direction which was of special value by virtue 
 of his long acquaintance with the activities of the Society. 
 
 The Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, which have been 
 published since the foundation of the Society in 1822, contain 
 a very extensive collection of letters dealing with the Church 
 in the United States. It was quite natural that these pub- 
 lished documents should be studied first; and this study im- 
 pressed upon me the fact that the unpublished material for 
 any diocese in the United States or, indeed, for all the dioceses, 
 was much more vast than scholars realize. At an early date 
 I expressed this conviction to the General Secretary, but owing 
 to various difficulties which arose I did not succeed in obtain- 
 ing access to the unpublished documents until after the New 
 Year, 1921. 
 
 Once begun on the work of sifting all this unpublished ma- 
 terial, the subject became more difficult of treatment ; for no 
 one scholar could copy all the correspondence of the American 
 bishops to the Society during the last hundred years. It 
 would take an experienced secretary at least three years to 
 copy all this material. 
 
 At first the dossiers containing the letters from the Ameri- 
 can dioceses were studied in alphabetical order. Later, this 
 plan was abandoned in favor of the dossiers containing the 
 letters from the fourteen American archdioceses, together 
 with those from other dioceses evidently of considerable im- 
 portance, either by virtue of their connection with the foun- 
 dation of the Society or the length of years in which they 
 had received aid from the Society, or on account of the con- 
 spicuous importance of some of their bishops. 
 
 Later, it developed that the correspondence from America 
 before the years 1832-1838 did not exist in the Paris Archives. 
 Hence the necessity arose of visiting Lyons with the hope of 
 finding this material there. Owing to the danger that these 
 archives would be confiscated by the Government at the time 
 of the Associations Cultuelles (1906), all the documents had 
 
Preface vii 
 
 been, packed in cases and shipped to Fribourg, Switzerland, 
 where they still remained. 
 
 With gracious co-operation, M. Valerian Groffier, General 
 Secretary of the Central Council of Lyons, was kind enough 
 to go to Fribourg for the express purpose of finding this 
 material for my thesis. The result was that I have the most 
 important documents from 1822 to 1838, which have never 
 been published in the Annales. Monseigiieur Bechetoille, 
 President of the Central Council of Lyons, gave me copies of 
 valuable documents concerning Pauline-Marie Jaricot and the 
 foundation of the Society. 
 
 After these letters had been procured, however, it be- 
 came evident that additional material might be located in 
 the archives of the Superior Council. These archives disap- 
 peared in the Revolution of 1830, and no trace of them re- 
 mains. In order clearly to establish the relationship between 
 the Society and the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide 
 it was necessary to visit Rome where Cardinal Van Rossum, 
 the Prefect of the Congregation, made it possible for me to 
 procure all the important data on this point. 
 
 From the outset, the plan had been to treat the Society's 
 foundation, organization, administration and accomplish- 
 ments in the world in an introductory chapter, and to confine 
 to the body of the work the story of those results which could 
 be traced to the financial aid the Society had given to the 
 dioceses of the United States. The large number of dioceses 
 which had received assistance from the Society and the length 
 of years over which this assistance was distributed, together 
 with the impossibility of transcribing all the documents re- 
 garding these dioceses rendered this plan far too extensive. 
 Some limitation had to be devised. A geographical limitation 
 was not satisfactory, because there could be very little con- 
 nection between the story of the foundation of the Society 
 and its results in any restricted part of the United States. 
 A limit in time also involved a lack of proportion in the work, 
 since there was a dearth of material for some dioceses and a 
 
viii Preface 
 
 large quantity for others. A suitable terminus ad quern 
 might necessitate the selection of the First Plenary Council 
 of Baltimore (1852), but this would require too lengthy a 
 work for a doctoral dissertation. Even the arbitrary time 
 limit of the first ten years involved many of these difficulties. 
 
 It was found necessary, before treating the results of the 
 Society's contribution to America, to endeavor critically to 
 clear up the mooted questions connected with the foundation 
 of the Society. In addition to this, its end, its means, its 
 organization, its development through the encouragement and 
 cooperation of the Holy See and the Episcopate, its accom- 
 plishments in evangelization, in education and in works of 
 charity, and its services to civilization and science, together 
 with its allied activities, required a great deal of detailed 
 exposition. 
 
 Moreover, coming as it does, in the centenary year of the 
 Society, it was found desirable to give in these pages a general 
 conspectus of the Society's accomplishments in the five con- 
 tinents of the world, and to postpone until later the story of 
 its contribution to the American Church. 
 
 Grateful acknowledgment is due to Rev. Dr. Peter Guil- 
 day, my major professor, to whom I owe my historical train- 
 ing. It was only by virtue of his generous counsel, his 
 direction and assistance, that I was enabled to complete this 
 essay. 
 
 Special thanks are due to Monsignor Freri, whose 
 kind encouragement and cooperation were necessary at every 
 stage of the research and the composition. 
 
 In Paris the Central Council of the Society has for some 
 forty years been under the direction of M. Alexandre 
 Guasco, the General Secretary. Undoubtedly, this gentleman 
 is better acquainted with every detail in connection with the 
 history of this Society than any man living. After all these 
 years of self-sacrificing service to the missionary cause, dur- 
 ing which he has published a number of books on the sub- 
 ject, M. Guasco was the one person capable of directing this 
 work. No doubt I caused a considerable amount of labor and 
 
Preface ix 
 
 worry to M. Guasco by my many months of work in his 
 office. In the archives there were so many documents which 
 had to be located and examined that a great deal of labor 
 was involved. For all his courtesy I am deeply grateful. 
 
 Monseigneur Odelin, the President of the Central Council 
 of Paris, as well as M. L. Geliner, M. Huffer and the Cure 
 of St. Sulpice, who are members of this Council, are also 
 deserving of my thanks. 
 
 A very particular expression of appreciation is due to 
 Bishop Alfred Baudrillart, Rector of the Institut Catholique 
 de Paris, Membre de 1'Academie, who assisted me in gaining 
 admission to the Society 's archives ; also to M. Louis Veuillot, 
 who was ever ready and eager to aid me in any way in his 
 power. The mere statement that I was living with the Veuillot 
 family was often sufficient endorsement to obtain special con- 
 sideration in my researches. M. Gaston Lacoin displayed a 
 marked interest in the work and often aided it by his wise 
 direction. 
 
 Professor Berger, of the ficole des Chartes, Membre de 
 I'lnstitut, and the Secretary of the American Legation, and 
 Mr. Hearn, head of the activities of the Knights of Columbus 
 in France, aided me by their interest in the work. 
 
 Mile. Violette Louzier, who for ten months labored consci- 
 entiously in the Archives of the Society in Paris and Lyons 
 in translating and transcribing documents, is deserving of 
 very special gratitude ; her proficiency in English proved most 
 helpful. 
 
 At Rome Monsignor O'Hern, Rector of the American 
 College, took a cordial interest in my work. He advised me 
 to consult Father Thomas Hughes, S. J., who has labored for 
 some twenty years in the Roman Archives, and also to obtain 
 an audience with Cardinal Van Rossum. The Cardinal Pre- 
 fect of Propaganda listened very attentively to my request 
 and only desired to be reassured in respect to my motive. 
 Being satisfied with my purpose, he referred me to the Archiv- 
 ists of Propaganda, and I was permitted to study in the 
 archives, although they were closed for the summer, and also 
 
x Preface 
 
 to have photographed or copied any documents I might desire, 
 after my departure. I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude 
 to His Eminence Cardinal Van Rossum for his courtesy and 
 kindness in thus permitting me to obtain access to much 
 valuable source-material. 
 
 Father Andre assisted me in obtaining information, and 
 Father Havey, Rector of the Sulpician Seminary at Washing- 
 ton, has aided me constantly by his counsel and advice. 
 
 In Louvain, Father De Ghellink, Librarian of the Jesuit 
 House of Study, very kindly put all the books and collections 
 in the library at my disposal. In Paris, Father Foley, C. M., 
 arranged for me to have access to the Annales de la Congre- 
 gation de la Mission. 
 
 I have the pleasure of adding a word here to express my 
 sincere gratitude to the professors of the Catholic University 
 of America for their direction in my graduate work. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 
 
 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith may be de- 
 fined as an organization authorized by the Church for the 
 purpose of maintaining and developing the Catholic Missions 
 which have been established among non-Catholics throughout 
 the world. 
 
 The object of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 is as old as the Church itself. In its actual form, however, 
 the great French organization is but one hundred years old. 
 In an account written some eighty years ago by Frederic 
 Ozanam, who was at that time the Editor of the Society's 
 Annales, we read that the beginnings of the "Oeuvre de la 
 Propagation de la Foi" were, like so many Christian insti- 
 tutions, insignificant and obscure. Divine Providence, 
 Ozanam says, often so prepares these beginnings that no one 
 person can claim authorship and no human name receive the 
 glory, since "He conceals and distributes their sources like 
 those of large rivers of which it cannot be told from what 
 stream they flow. ' ' One of the chief difficulties in describing 
 the origin of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith is 
 the problem of ascertaining to whom, among those who had 
 an actual share in its foundation, the major portion of the 
 credit should be given. 
 
 1. Notice sur I'Oeuvre la Propagation de la Foi, in the Melanges 
 of FREDERIC OZANAM, t. II, pp. 23-26, Paris 1872; Cf. Annales, t. 
 XLIV (1872), pp. 157-166; t. LII pp. 147-153; FRERI, The Society 
 for the Propagation of the Faith and the Catholic Missions. New York, 
 1912, p. 5; FRERI, The Society for the Propagation of the Faith and 
 the Catholic Missions in Annals, vol. LXXXV, March-April, 1922, 
 p. 44. HENRION, Histoire Generale des Missions Catholiques, t. II, pt. 
 ii, pp. 675, Lyons, 1850. 
 
 LOUVET, Les Missions Catholiques au XIX Siecle p. la, Lyons, 
 Paris, 1894. 
 
. * 
 
 . 
 
 2 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 As the years went by during the century of the Society's 
 activity (1822-1922), the end and the purposes of the work 
 naturally assumed broader and at the same time more de- 
 tailed outlines. This fact makes it somewhat difficult to 
 define in a few words the purpose of the Society. For 
 example, in the original rules of 1822, we find the object 
 of the Society defined as follows: "It has for its object 
 to extend the Society of the Catholic faithful by aiding, by 
 all the means in its power, the missionaries entrusted with 
 spreading the light of the Faith in the foreign nations of the 
 world. ' ' In the revised rules of 1834 we read that the pur- 
 pose of the Society is given as assistance by prayer and alms 
 to Catholic missionaries entrusted with the preaching of the 
 Gospel in the lands "beyond the seas." 
 
 To reach a definition of strict accuracy special prominence 
 must be given to the means which have been used from the 
 beginning of the Society: namely, prayer and the offerings 
 of the faithful in every part of the world. The definition of 
 the Society, which finds a permanent place in its official pub- 
 lications, is as follows: 
 
 I/Oeuvre do la Propagation de la Foi est une oeuvre catholique 
 ayant pour but d 'aider, par la priere et les offrandes des fideles, au 
 maintien et au developpement des missions catholiques dans les pays 
 h6r6tiques, schismatiques, et infideles. 4 
 
 The birthday for the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith was May 3, 1822. Consequently, this present year 
 chronicles the rounding-out of a century of successful activity 
 on the part of the Society. 
 
 2. Extrait du Reglement de I' Association de la Propagation de 
 la Foi in the Annales, t. I, fasc. iii,'p. 30; ibid t. I, fasc. VI, p. 93. 
 
 3. Supplement to Annales, t. VII, fasc. XXXVI, pp. 1-4. 
 
 4. Cf. I'Oeuvre de la Propagation de la, Foi; Dix Annees d'Apos- 
 tolat dans les Missions (1898-1907), p. 5, Paris, 1908; Propagation of 
 the Faith in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. XII, p. 461. The Society 
 for the Propagation of the Faith is an international association for 
 the assistance by prayers and alms-giving of Catholic missionary 
 priests, brothers and nuns engaged in preaching the Gospel in heathen 
 and non-Catholic countries. Cf. Prospeotus of the Oeuvre, printed 
 in Lyons, May, 1835, quoted by G-UASCO, L 'Oeuvre de la Propaga- 
 tion de la Foi, p. 15, 1911. This Society has for its object to pro- 
 cure for men eternal salvation, to substitute civilization for barbarism 
 and to relieve innumerable misfortunes'. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 3 
 
 The fact that this year, 1922, is the tercentenary of the 
 foundation of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, 
 brings into bold relief the splendid history of what has been 
 done in its past by the Church for the propagation of the 
 Gospel. It is worthy of note that very often the Sacred 
 Congregation and the Society are confused in the minds of 
 some historians. There is without doubt an intimate relation- 
 ship between these two organizations. The one which now 
 is celebrating the three hundredth anniversary of its organi- 
 zation is naturally of greater importance, both because of its 
 longer period of activity, and because it is one of the official 
 ministries of the Church for the purpose of spreading the 
 Faith. The principal end of the Congregation was to recon- 
 quer, by spiritual means that is, by prayers and good works, 
 by preaching and by catechising the countries that had been 
 lost to the Church through the Protestant revolt of the six- 
 teenth century, and to organize into one compact corps the 
 missionaries and the missionary enterprises necessary for this 
 purpose. The Sacred Congregation had been in existence for 
 two centuries when the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith was founded ; and the Holy See perceived in the French 
 Society another, and as it has proved to be, a most important 
 means of carrying out its great design. The Society, there- 
 fore, must not be confounded with the Sacred Congregation, 
 although they bear similar names. To the credit of the 
 French Society it may be said that without its assistance 
 during the past hundred years the Sacred Congregation would 
 have been seriously hampered in the work of directing, super- 
 
 5. Cf. GUILDAY, The Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide 
 in the Catholic Historical Eeview, vol. VI, pp. 478-494, where a 
 complete bibliography of Propaganda will be found. FRERI, The 
 Society, etc., p. 11, 1912: GUASCO, Catholiques de France, pp. 9-10, 
 Lyons; GENNEVOISE, La Propaganda in the Missions Catholiques, 
 1874, t. VI, pp. 410-412, 427-430, 439-441, 450-452, 476, 487-488. 
 LE BOY, La Propaganda in the Missions Catholiques, t. XXXVII, pp. 
 4-5, 15-17, 27-29, 44-47: HENRION, op. cit., t. II, part i, pp. 245, et seq; 
 LOUVET, op. cit., pp. 22a-26a; L'Oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, 
 pp. 106-108, Lyons, 1898. 
 
4 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 vising and assisting the missionaries in those lands where 
 heresy, schism and infidelity prevail. 
 
 We can well understand that many papal documents have 
 come from Rome in praise of the French Society. It has 
 been enriched with spiritual favors by every Pope who has 
 reigned over the Church during the past hundred years. On 
 December 3, 1880, for example, Pope Leo XIII signalized the 
 activity of the Society by praising the abundant harvest it 
 has made during its existence and the great Pope mentions 
 in particular the cooperation between the Society and the 
 Sacred Congregation in sustaining the work of the mission- 
 aries throughout the world. The Sacred Congregation from 
 the beginning divided its work into two sections ; one for the 
 Missions of the Latin Rite and those of the Oriental Rites, 
 and one for the maintenance of both. It is consequently the 
 supreme missionary organization in the Church of God. The 
 Society of the Propagation of the Faith has become, in the 
 course of the past hundred years, its greatest auxiliary in 
 this work. 6 Both have the world as their field of action ; 
 both receive monetary assistance from the faithful in all 
 parts of the world; both assist the Missions wherever that 
 assistance is necessary; but the Sacred Congregation, being 
 one of the central administrative bodies of the Holy See, is 
 the superior organization and retains the supreme adminis- 
 tration of the missionary field. The highest honor conferred 
 upon the Society for the Propagation of the Faith came in 
 1840, when Gregory XVI by the Probe nostis placed the 
 Society in the rank of Universal Catholic Institutions, thus 
 raising the Society to an eminence in the Church second only 
 to the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide. 7 As an 
 international Catholic organization, with its home in Lyons 
 and Paris, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith has 
 
 6. LEO XIII, Encyclical Letter Sancta Dei Civitas, of Dec. 3, 
 1880 in the Annales, t. LIII, pp. 79-94: Missions Cutholiques, t. XII, 
 pp. 613-618, 1880. 
 
 7. Annales, t. XII, pp. 603-615. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 5 
 
 been one of the strongest bonds of union among the faithful 
 of all nations during the century that has just passed. 
 
 To describe the activities and the accomplishments of the 
 Society during the hundred years of its existence, the his- 
 torian naturally will first seek for that history in the accounts 
 published by the Society itself. 8 As we peruse these docu- 
 ments, one fact is common to them all: The work of the 
 Society is viewed not as the result of a modern movement 
 towards centralizing missionary endeavor, but is considered 
 to be the culmination of all the missionary activity in the 
 past history of the Church. For this reason those who have 
 written concerning the Society trace its origin to the very 
 beginning of the Church. 
 
 The work of spreading the Faith is as old as Christianity ; 
 and there is no exaggeration on the part of these writers 
 when they find in the charge given by Christ to the Apostles : 
 Go ye into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every 
 creature the actual beginning of the institution known as 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. In the various 
 Notices about the Society published in the Annales, in the offi- 
 cial reports published at various times during the past hun- 
 dred years, and in the short history of the Society by the 
 present General Secretary, M. Alexandre Guasco, the entire 
 history of the Propagation of the Faith from the time of 
 Christ down to the foundation is regarded, and with histori- 
 cal justice, as a preparation for the Society itself. 9 
 
 The great French Dominican, Monsabre, in a sermon 
 preached at Lyons on March 20, 1891, in the name of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Faith, has given a perma- 
 nent form to this idea. 10 He has divided the epoch preceding 
 the actual foundation of the Society into three periods. The 
 
 8. In the final chapter of this work entitled Critical Essay on the 
 Sources, these publications are described in detail. 
 
 9. GUASCO, L'Oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi Paris, 1911. 
 
 10. MONSABRE, Discours en favour de I'Oeuvre de la Propa- 
 gation de la Foi, prononce dans I'Eglisc primatiale de Lyon, March 
 20, 1891, Lyons, 1891 (p. 32) ; Cf. LE ROY, Discours prononce au 
 Congres National de Paris, Nov. 29, 1898, in the Missions Catholiques, 
 t. XXX, supplement, pp. 1-7, 1898. 
 
6 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 first period in the work of the Propagation of the Faith he 
 calls the Apostolic Age. And he sees in the organization of 
 the Church, in the growth of the priesthood and in the final 
 triumph of the Christian Faith over the paganism of the 
 Romano-Hellenic world the first conquest of the Faith. To 
 this period belongs not only the work of the Apostles and Dis- 
 ciples who received their mission from Christ on Pentecost 
 Sunday, but also the work of the great national missionaries, 
 such as St. Patrick, St. Augustine of Canterbury, St. Boni- 
 face, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, and the other missionaries to 
 the new European nations. 
 
 The second period commences with what^Moiisabre has 
 called that of the official protectorate over the Missions by 
 the Christian Governments of the middle ages. This period 
 lasts down to the time of the French Revolution. In this 
 second period the spiritual and temporal powers of the world 
 cooperated in the work of establishing the Kingdom o*f God 
 on earth. The rise of the monastic orders with their ever- 
 increasing missionary activity is one of the outstanding facts 
 in this period. It is true that the exercise of royal protection 
 over the spread of the missionary work brought about cer- 
 tain difficulties between Church and State; and these con- 
 flicts have unfortunately cast too large a shadow over medi- 
 eval civilization. In the earlier part of the middle ages cer- 
 tain inconveniences arose that hindered the success of the 
 Missions; and no doubt a more definite means of cooperation 
 between Church and State in the spread of Christian civili- 
 zation would have been agreed upon, had not the Protestant 
 Rebellion of the sixteenth century badly shattered the mis- 
 sionary work of the Church. We see one evidence of this in 
 the foundation of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda 
 Fide in 1622, since its origin can be traced to a period anterior 
 to the so called Counter-Reformation. For almost a century 
 before the foundation of Propaganda, the Church of God had 
 been blessed with the presence of a religious society founded 
 for the express purpose of spreading the Faith in pagan 
 lands. That the activities of the Society of Jesus were turned 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 1 
 
 rather to the work of salvaging those parts of Christendom 
 which had been lost to the Church in the debacle of the six- 
 teenth century, is an added evidence to the fact of the per- 
 manency of Christian missionary ideals; and the presence, 
 therefore, of this splendid phalanx of scholars and mission- 
 aries, directed by the Sacred Congregation, enables us to un- 
 derstand how, little by little, there would grow up within the 
 Church the idea of an organization which would centralize 
 the interest of the Catholic laity throughout the world in 
 the work of propagating the Faith. This second period ends 
 with the outbreak of the French Revolution. 
 
 At the close of the eighteenth century, side by side, with 
 the cleavage from the older form of government, there went 
 a demoralization of Christian institutions. In the suppression 
 of the Society of Jesus, in the dispersal of the religious orders, 
 and in the spread of revolutionary principles, the work of the 
 Apostolate, while not abandoned, was nevertheless paralyzed 
 for the time being. One fact was certain, namely, that the per- 
 iod of union and protection, in which the political powers of 
 Europe cooperated with the Church for the spread of Christi- 
 anity, was over. But the hand of God was not weakened. 
 The Pope, ever erect, pointed out to the Apostles of the Faith 
 the new worlds which had to be conquered and the old worlds 
 which had to be regained to God. No longer could the Papacy 
 depend upon the governments of Europe for its sacred work. 
 Consequently, the cry of the Holy See went out to the people. 
 No new note needed to be struck. The message given was 
 one which carried the memories of the faithful back to the 
 early ages of the Church when, side by side with the Apostles 
 and Disciples, could be found the faithful laymen and lay- 
 women ready and anxious to assist in the conquest for Christ." 
 The inspiration which crystallized this sentiment created the 
 third and present period of the ideal for which the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Faith stands. After a century of 
 experience, the Society can look back on the years of its ac- 
 
 11. MONSABRE, ut supra, p. 15. 
 
8 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 tivity and can well realize that its courageous acceptance of 
 the task of rehabilitating the Missions of the world has never 
 once slackened in that time. 
 
 Monsignor Freri has given us a summary of these three 
 periods, in his recent story of the Society : 
 
 The first was the period, properly apostolic, the age of special di- 
 vine manifestation in behalf of the Propagation of the Faith. During 
 this period the apostles and their first successors preached throughout 
 the world; their missionary needs were supplied by divine assistance, 
 by miracles and by the responsive devotion inspired in their early con- 
 verts. 
 
 The second period was that of union and protectorship; that is 
 to say, the temporal powers of the world united to -establish the 
 Kingdom of Jesus Christ. The era of bloody persecution had closed, 
 the Church was victorious and the Caesars bowed their heads in sub- 
 mission to receive the yoke of the cross; emperors, kings and republics 
 cooperated with the Church in preaching the Christian faith. 
 
 The third period of the work of the Propagation of the !*aith is 
 the one in which we are living. It began with the XIX Century. 
 The impiety of the XVIII Century had already dealt a mortal blow 
 to a number of flourishing missions, when the terrible revolutions which 
 marked the end of this sad epoch effected a radical change in the 
 religious attitude even of European nations that had remained faithful 
 to the Catholic religion. 
 
 From this moment their action was distinct from that of the 
 Church, which they henceforth considered an outside and sometimes 
 rival power. They were no longer to be depended upon for the ex- 
 tension of the Kingdom of God on earth. The period of union and 
 protectorship was over. Then Providence substituted the people for 
 kings. Catholic missions no longer directly supported by sovereigns 
 were maintained by the people. Rich and poor were called to the 
 honor of supporting missionaries of the Gospel and contributing to 
 the development of the Catholic religion in all climes. 
 
 Several societies were founded during the course of the last hun- 
 dred years to give form and organization to the charity of the faith- 
 ful in behalf of missions, but most of them have either a limited aim 
 or assist missionaries of a certain nationality alone. The only one 
 truly universal, is the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which 
 furnishes the principal support for the Catholic Apostolate. 12 
 
 12. FKERI, op. cit., pp. 3-4, 1912; pp. 43-44, 1922. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 9 
 
 Few Catholics are ignorant of the history of the Church's 
 missionary activity ; and yet few know its history in any ade- 
 quate way. Many think, as Bishop Le Roy has pointed out, 
 that the world was converted at the time of Constantine; 
 while others consider the Missions solely in the light of their 
 political influence in the lands where they exist. 18 But the 
 role of the Catholic missionaries is the continuance of the 
 work of the Apostles, and the history of the Missions is equiv- 
 alent to the external history of the Church. The Society for 
 the Propagation of the Faith does not constitute an indepen- 
 dent branch of this missionary activity, but it combines into 
 one organized corporation the assistance given by the faith- 
 ful for the necessary prosecution of the missionary work of 
 the Church. 
 
 To tell the story of the foundation of the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Faith, and to describe its accomplishments 
 in the last hundred years is a work that must appeal not only 
 to the historian but to all those who see in its success another 
 proof of Christ's presence in His Church. What Guasco has 
 done for French readers, Monsigiior Freri, the National Di- 
 rector of the Society in the United States, has done for the 
 English-speaking world; and with these two little volumes 
 before us, together with the Annales and the numerous docu- 
 ments and pamphlets which it has been our pleasure to col- 
 lect, the progress of the Society from 1822 to 1922 can be 
 told in that fulness of detail which must bring delight to the 
 thousands in this country who have assisted in promoting 
 the work and in helping the Society to be truly universal in 
 its support of the Catholic Apostolate. 
 
 13. LE ROY, Discours, etc., p. 1. 
 
10 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIETY 
 
 Looking backward through the hundred years of the ex- 
 istence of the Society, we are cognizant of a singular fact 
 that cannot help causing considerable regret to the histori- 
 cal student. The unusual mass of published material for the 
 story of its activity is in reality but a portion of the docu- 
 mentary sources which still need to be analyzed before a 
 complete history of the Society can be attempted. Scarcely 
 any aspect of its work, either of a religious, scientific, or 
 literary nature, has been neglected by the writers who have 
 preceded us; and one has but to glance over the voluminous 
 historical notes in the Annales which have now passed their 
 ninety-fourth volume, the works of Louvet and of Henrion 
 who have treated the story of the Catholic Missions in detail, 
 to realize how truly magnificent a past belongs to this great 
 French Catholic organization. 1 
 
 But the regret remains; for the most interesting period 
 of all is the period of the origin of the Society, and in spite 
 of all that has been published on this subject, we are still 
 unable to describe its beginnings with that certainty of his- 
 torical fact which is demanded by modern scientific methods. 
 The truth is, or seems to be, that the Society is the result of 
 an amalgam of many ideas and ideals, many plans and as- 
 pirations. There were the preliminary work of Mile. Jaricot, 
 and the preliminary plans of Mme. Petit ; and there was the 
 successful effort at a combination of these two movements 
 by M. Benoit Coste, who also deserves to be numbered among 
 the founders. 
 
 Around these three names, then, in particular, must be 
 centred the story of the Society's origin. All three of them 
 Jaricot, Petit and Coste, belonged to the city of Lyons. 
 
 1. LOUVET, op. ctt.; HENRION, op. cit. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 11 
 
 And around them may be grouped the many others who 
 must be mentioned in the story, since all furnished plans 
 and ideas at the outset of the work. For example, the story 
 of Mile. Pauline-Marie Jaricot would be incomplete without 
 the names of her brother, Phileas Jaricot, who was a student 
 for the priesthood at St. Sulpice, in Paris, when Pauline was 
 originating her Society, of M. 1'Abbe Chaumont, Director of 
 the Seminaire des Missions Etrangeres, at Paris, a friend 
 of Phileas Jaricot, of M. le Cure Gourdiat, of the Church of St. 
 Polycarp, Lyons, who encouraged Pauline through her earli- 
 est difficulties with the ecclesiastical authorities, of Mile. 
 Sophie David, an active worker in the Society, and of M. 
 1'Abbe Girodon, a layman at the time of the Society's founda- 
 tion, upon whom Mile. Jaricot depended for direction and 
 assistance. 
 
 Around the romantic figure of Mme. Petit, the saddened 
 ref ugiee of San Domingo, the two chief figures are the Ameri- 
 can Bishops, Flaget of Bardstown and Du Bourg of New 
 Orleans. There are also M. 1'Abbe Cholleton, Director of 
 the Seminary of Saint Irenaeus, of Lyons, the friend of 
 Du Bourg, the notorious Father Inglesi, whose meteoric and 
 unsaintly career in the United States has marred his glory 
 as a founder of the Society, and M. Didier Petit de Meur- 
 ville, who called the meeting of May 3, 1822, at which the 
 Society was founded, and whose influence in the final organi- 
 zation was a preponderant one. 
 
 The third figure is that of M. Benoit Coste, a silk merchant 
 of Lyons, who saw the grave risk both Mile. Jaricot and Mme. 
 Petit ran in failing at the outset to make their work universal 
 in character and in scope. To him, probably, belongs the 
 credit for inspiring both groups with the ideal of a truly 
 universal society for all the Missions in the world. 
 
 These, then, are the chief personages in the story of the 
 Society's origin, and around them has centred for almost 
 a hundred years the rather interesting controversy: Whose 
 was the original idea of the Society of the Propagation of 
 the Faith as it exists today? 
 
12 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 There was more than one attempt at an organization 
 similar in design to that of the Society before the birth of 
 Pauline-Marie Jaricot at Lyons on July 22, 1799. Although 
 Mile. Jaricot has been given the credit for founding the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Faith in most of the 
 popular literature 011 that subject, several different attempts 
 were made before her time to organize a confraternity for 
 the same purpose. Henrion, in his history of the Missions, 
 speaks of a Society founded by a Capuchin, Father 
 Hyacinthe, in 1632, at Paris, under the title "Congregation 
 of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross." Its purpose was the 
 Propagation of the Faith in Protestant lands and for the 
 promotion of the Sacrament of Confirmation among Catholic 
 children. 2 In one of his reports on the origin of the Society 
 written in 1842, Ozanam, who was then editor of the Annales, 
 tells a story of a certain Father Paulmyer, a canon of the 
 Cathedral of Bayeux, who wrote for Pope Alexander VII, 
 1663, Memoir es touchant I' establissement d'une Mission dans 
 le troisieme monde autrement appele la terre australe, indi- 
 cating the means of establishing an association formed on 
 the model of the East India Company under the direction of 
 a group of persons who knew the East and who would spread 
 the Faith in that part of the world. 8 The essential point of 
 his project was that everyone, rich and poor, high and low, 
 should be asked to contribute a small amount to the work. 
 
 A still further project was proposed by the Superiors 
 of the Seminary for Foreign Missions at Paris. This Society 
 was founded about the middle of the seventeenth century for 
 the purpose of training a clergy who would go directly to 
 infidel countries for the work of the Gospel. The Seminary 
 is not a religious order, but a society of secular priests who 
 are sent to China, Japan and India for missionary labors. 
 The Seminary itself is one of the best known projects of its 
 
 2. HENRION, op. cit., t. II, part ii, p. 675. 
 
 3. OZANAM, Notice sur L'Oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, in 
 Melanges, pp. 25-26; Annales, t. XV, p. 170, 1843; Cf. GUASCO, op. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 13 
 
 kind and the thought of forming a society of auxiliaries who 
 would assist it in meeting the vast expenses necessary to carry 
 on the work was first explained as early as 1665, when the 
 Bishop of Heliopolis petitioned Rome for the approbation 
 of such a confraternity which was to be known as the Con- 
 fraternity of the Holy Apostles. 4 The prelate does not appear 
 to have been successful in organizing a distinct society, but 
 on through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Cath- 
 olic faithful of France had been made cognizant of the work 
 of the Seminary by means of pamphlets on the Foreign 
 Missions. 
 
 The first Association of Prayers and Good Works for 
 the salvation of the infidels dates, as far as can be ascer- 
 tained, from the end of the eighteenth century. 6 It is known 
 that in 1780 a brochure on this Association was being spread 
 broadcast throughout France. The members of this Associa- 
 
 4. HENRION, op. cit., p. 675; Cf. Memoire Historique sur les 
 Constitutions de la Congregation des Missions Etrangeres, pp. 6, 16, 
 17, especially 8, 117. 
 
 5. LAUNAY, Histoire de la Societe des Missions Etrangeres, t. 
 II, pp. 500, et seq. : "The first association of prayers and good works 
 for the salvation of the infidels, as it was called, dates at least, as we 
 know it, from the end of the XVIII century. We are ignorant of the 
 precise epoch of its foundation and the name of him who had the idea 
 of it, but we know that in 1780 a brochure was circulated which ex- 
 plained the end and practices of the association. This brochure existed 
 in the archives of the Seminaire des Missions Etrangeres of Paris in 
 1799; it was rediscovered in 1816. Here is a r6sum6 of the rules it 
 contained: The associates must daily recite the prayers of St. Francis 
 Xavier: Aeterne rerum, and of St. Bernard: Memorare Piisima, on 
 every Friday they must offer their good works to obtain by the merits 
 of the passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ, the conversion of the infi- 
 dels. Every year at six determined masses, they must communicate, 
 if they were poor, or have them celebrated or celebrate them them- 
 selves if they were rich. They had no formality to observe, they were 
 not inscribed on any list and they had no offerings to contribute. The 
 first association which consisted only in the recitation of common 
 prayers and in zeal for the missions disappeared during the Revolution. 
 L'Abbe Chaumont frequently published brochures containing letters of 
 missionaries and soliciting alms. In the expose of the condition and 
 of the needs of the missions which he published in 1816, he explained 
 a^ practice which had long been employed by the ' Anabaptists ' in 
 England. They formed associations called auxiliary societies by means 
 of which all classes of citizens, even the poorest, by laying aside a 
 cent or two each week for this object have the satisfaction of contrib- 
 uting to the progress of the Gospel." 
 
14 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 tion met every day to recite prayers for the conversion of the 
 infidels; they received Holy Communion six times a year, 
 and while they had no definite offering to give as a contri- 
 bution, there is no doubt that some help was given of this 
 nature. Father Chaumont, Superior of the Seminary for 
 Foreign Missions, published in 1816, a pamphlet describing 
 the conditions and the needs of the Foreign Missions, and 
 suggested that it would be a splendid practice if the Cath- 
 olics would imitate certain Protestant Societies in England, 
 the members of which put aside a penny or two every week 
 for this object." As is well known, in several of the large 
 cities of England, such as London, Liverpool, Plymouth and 
 Bristol, Protestant associations of this kind had been founded 
 in the seventeenth century for the purpose of helping Prot- 
 estant Missions and it was a customary thing for them to 
 have on display in the various shops in the town small boxes 
 for alms, such as we are quite accustomed to in our day. 
 
 In 1817 the directors of the Seminary for Foreign Missions 
 published a pamphlet having for its title: Association of 
 Prayers to ask of God the conversion of infidels, the perse- 
 verance of Christians who lived in the midst of them and the 
 prosperity of establishments destined to Propagate the Faith. 7 
 
 6. Cf. GUASCO, op. cit., p. 20; Annalcs, t. I, fase. vi, pp. 92-93; 
 1825; Encyclopedia Brittanica, vol. XVIII, pp. 586-587, London, 
 LAUNAY, op. cit., t. II, p. 500. 
 
 7. LAUNAY, op. cit., t. II, pp. 500, et seq.: The practices of the 
 association are determined with precision and clarity; in the parishes 
 where the associates are numerous, it recommends that they choose one 
 among them as chief who will inscribe their names and have the as- 
 sociates meet to recite in common the prayers indicated. These prayers 
 for the most part are the same as those prescribed in 1780, the prayer 
 of St. Francis Xavier: Aetcrne rerum, that of St. Bernard to the 
 Blessed Virgin: Memorarc O Piisima, which could be replaced by three 
 Paters and Aves. Every Monday the associates recite a De Profundis 
 or a Pater and an Ave for the repose of the souls of the defunct 
 associates; the priests celebrate at least one mass each year for the 
 same intentions. The principal feasts of the association are the 
 Epiphany, Pentecost, St. Joseph and St. Francis Xavier. The Christians 
 are exhorted to go to confession and communion on the day of admission 
 into the association. 
 
 The Secretary of Propaganda was willing to present personally to the 
 Sovereign Pontiff the resume of the supplication which the directors of 
 the Seminary had written on this subject. * * * * By an indult of Nov. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 15 
 
 The means employed were prayer and almsgiving. Every 
 Monday the Associates would recite certain prayers for the 
 repose of the souls of departed members ; priests were asked to 
 celebrate at least one Mass a year for that purpose; and 
 the members w r ere exhorted to go to Holy Communion the 
 day of their entry into the Association. By an indult of 
 November 30, 1817, Pius VII approved the Association and 
 granted it certain indulgences. This Association was evi- 
 dently an advance over that of 1780 and it soon began to gain 
 members. At the same time Abbe Langlois, one of the Supe- 
 riors of the Seminary for Foreign Missions, began to publish 
 the news of the Foreign Missions in a small booklet. These 
 letters appeared from 1818-1823 and were later published in 
 book form under the title Nouvelles Lettres fidifiantes; the 
 series contained many other letters of the period anterior to 
 1818, and caused a considerable amount of new interest in the 
 Missions. 8 
 
 About this time Phileas, the brother of Pauline-Marie, 
 entered the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in order to complete 
 his studies for the priesthood. 9 This was probably in 1820. 
 There had been considerable correspondence between himself 
 and his sister on the subject of a Society which she had 
 founded among pious servant girls w 7 ho were known as the 
 1 ' Reparatrices du Sacre Coeur de Jesus Christ. ' ' After his en- 
 
 30, 1817, Pius VII approved the association, accorded to its membera 
 a plenary indulgence each year on the feasts of the Epiphany, Pentecost, 
 St. Joseph and St. Francis Xavier and a partial indulgence of one 
 hundred days each time they recite the prescribed prayers. An en- 
 couraging letter from Cardinal Litta in the name of Propaganda 
 accompanied this indult. 
 
 8. LAUNAY, ut supra. 
 
 9. GUASCO, op. cit., pp. 19-20; MAURIN, Vie Nouvelle de 
 Pauline-Marie Jaricot, p. 91, Paris 1892. Phileas Jaricot was( very 
 young when he manifested his desire to be an apostle. After having 
 passed ten months at the Seminaire de Ste-Foy-L 'Argentieve, he entered 
 the Seminaire de Saint-Sulpice in 1820. From this solitude, he continued 
 the conversations concerning the necessities of the distant missions, by 
 letter and excited the zeal of the Eeparatrices and consoled Pauline 
 when her work met with opposition. He was ordained to the priesthood 
 on Dec. 21, 1823. His health was poor and he became chaplain of the 
 Hotel Dieu. He died at the age of thirty-three years on February 26, 
 
16 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 trance into Saint-Sulpice he continued his interest in 
 the work of his sister and began to secure cooperation in a 
 plan that he had for assisting the Seminary of Foreign Mis- 
 sions which he was in the habit of visiting. By this time 
 Pauline-Marie had fairly well developed her plan of a new 
 society. 
 
 Pauline-Marie Jaricot was born at Lyons on July 22, 1799, 
 the seventh child of Antoine Jaricot and Jeanne Lattier, his 
 wife. Her life has been written by Maurin, a popular edition 
 of which appeared at Paris in 1892. 10 At the age of seven- 
 teen she began to lead a life of unusual self-sacrifice and mor- 
 tification, and on Christmas Day, 1816, she took a vow of 
 perpetual virginity. Through the Society of the Sacred Heart 
 of Jesus she succeeded in ameliorating the moral conditions 
 of many of the young girls of Lyons and it was with the 
 members of this pious society that she formed her first nucleus 
 for the Propagation of the Faith. It was in the midst of this 
 spiritual activity that the suggestion from her brother, 
 Phileas, reached her and she immediately began to form a 
 society among her intimate friends, whom she divided into 
 groups of ten and from whom she asked the small sum of a 
 penny-a-week for the Foreign Missions. 11 The plan of this 
 organization was sent in 1819 or 1820 by Phileas to M. 1'Abbe 
 
 10. MAURIN, ut supra; GUASCO, op. cit., pp. 17-20. 
 
 11. Letters from Phileas and from 1'Abbe Victor Girodon agree 
 that the idea of a cent-a-week came from the Seminaire des Missions- 
 Etrangeres through Phileas and the brochures of the associations of 
 prayers sent out by the Directors. Victor Girodon gathered together a 
 number of important letters bearing upon the activities of the founders 
 of the Society into a cahier entitled: Fondation de I'Oeuvre de la 
 Propagation de la FoL Monseigneur Bechetoille, President of the 
 Central Council of Lyons, loaned me this cahier with the assurance that 
 it contained true copies of the documents that had been sent to Rome 
 for the cause of beatification of Mile. Pauline-Marie Jaricot. Launay 
 says: "She had known the Seminaire des Missions Etrangeres through 
 reading the relations of missionaries, the statutes of associates of prayers 
 and the urgent appeals addressed to the Catholics by 1'AbbS Chaumont 
 and PAbb6 Langlois. The ardent soul of Mile. Jaricot was touched by 
 these sad accounts and she understood that organization was lacking 
 in the new association and she insistently asked God that she be 
 enlightened on that point. " 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 17 
 
 Langlois of the Seminary of Foreign Missions. 12 It is this fact 
 which has given to Mile. Jaricot the popular title of foundress 
 of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. In the note- 
 book of one of the priests of St. Polycarp at Lyons we read : 
 "When I was an assistant at the Church of St. Polycarp at 
 Lyons I undertook to trace the origin of the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Faith of Christ at this time (1867-68) 
 there were still living certain members of the first group 
 formed by Pauline-Marie. I visited them and endeavored 
 to gather all the traditions which they had. I am convinced 
 that this wonderful Society had a very singular origin and 
 that it is difficult to distinguish the traditions and the actual 
 history." One point which seems impossible to clear up is 
 the question of the cent-a-week system. It is true that 
 Pauline-Marie denied any connection between the Protestant 
 method and her own, and it is quite possible that the idea 
 arose in her own mind independently. In Maurin's Life it is 
 related that she was seated one evening in her study endeav- 
 oring to decide upon a plan for her work. The idea of groups 
 of ten arose quite unconsciously in her mind and after reflec- 
 tion she realized that the groups of ten persons might be ex- 
 tended to groups of a hundred and to groups of a thousand, 
 who would all send their funds to a common center. 14 She 
 traced this plan on a piece of paper and then talked it over 
 with one of the priests of Lyons. Pauline-Marie communicated 
 this idea to Phileas, who placed it before the Seminary of For- 
 eign Missions, and it was immediately commended by them as 
 an excellent system. Pauline 's brother-in-law was manager of a 
 silk factory at Saint-Vallier and she proposed to the workmen 
 in the factory and in the little town itself that they form them- 
 
 12. Cf. VICTOR GIRODON, cahier on the Fondation de I'Oeuvre 
 de la Propagation de la Foi. One letter of Alphonse Girodon dated 
 1880 claims Phileas was the intermediary between Pauline and the 
 Seminaire des Missions Etrangeres in 1819. Other letters in the same 
 cahier such as that of Mile. Sophie David state it was 1820. The 
 earliest letter from Phileas written in Paris is dated April 15, 1820. 
 
 13. Traditions concernant le question in the cahier of VICTOR 
 GIRODON, op. cit. 
 
 14. MAURIN, op. cit., p. 94; MASSON, Pauline-Marie Jaricot, p. 
 32, Lyons 1899; GUASCO, op. cit., p. 20. 
 
18 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 selves into groups of ten for the purpose of assisting the 
 Foreign Missions. This was probably in 1820. The difficulty 
 of regulating the organization among the working people at 
 this distance from her home led her to ask a young man in 
 the employ of her brother-in-law to guide the Society. This 
 young man, Victor Girodon, later entered the Seminary and 
 became a priest. 15 Around his name must be centered much 
 of the early history of the Society. It was Girodon who was 
 present at the meetings in May, 1822, at Lyons, when the 
 present Society for the Propagation of the Faith was founded 
 and he represented Pauline-Marie and her work. 
 
 We have now to chronicle a distinctly separate organiza- 
 tion which was assuming different shape about this time, 
 also in Lyons, some years before the birth of Pauline-Marie. 
 Didier Petit de Meurville lost his father and maternal uncle 
 in the general massacre of the whites by the negroes during 
 the revolution of San Domingo in 1794. Mme. Petit, his 
 mother, left Sari Domingo with her two children and came to 
 Baltimore. She had lost her fortune and being obliged to earn 
 her own living, opened a school for young girls in that city. 
 She became acquainted with Father Louis Du Bourg, who was 
 born in San Domingo in 1766. He entered the Seminary of 
 
 15. MAURIN, op. cit., p. 108; GUASCO, op. cit., p. 21; VICTOR 
 GIRODON, in the cahier has given these details in letters from Phileas 
 to Pauline, dated April 15, 1820; and from Girodon to Terret: "My 
 uncle (Victor Girodon) entered with ardor into the new association, he 
 brought to it that spirit of exactitude and continued effort which 
 solidly establishes and maintains. She (Mile. Jarieot) had the plans 
 and the initiative; it remained for him to put them into execution and 
 to develop them. He continued the relations with Phileas, obtained 
 more frequent and more important communications, and even some 
 printed notices which he circulated among his groups of ten." The 
 membership soon rose to one thousand which though a considerable 
 number was not likely to increase owing to the narrow scope of the 
 influence of the first associates. The first offerings amounted to 1,439 
 francs which were sent to the Seminaire des Missions Etrangeres in 1820 
 and 1821. "Ecclesiastical authority was indeed far from being favor- 
 able to it (the work of Mile. Jaricot) and often the voice of the pastors 
 was raised from the pulpit of the Chartreux at St. Nizier, against this 
 new, almost unknown work which had not been approved by superiors, 
 and which tended to replace works that were far more ancient and 
 of proven utility." L'Abbe Gourdiat encouraged Pauline and he 
 centralized the collections and delivered them to the Seminaire des 
 Missions Etrangeres at Paris. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 19 
 
 Saint-Sulpicc at Paris and was ordained there in 1788, and was 
 Superior of the Seminary of Issy when the French Revolution 
 drove him from France. The year of the massacre in San Do- 
 mingo he came to Baltimore, where he was welcomed by Bishop 
 Carroll. 18 It was not long before Mme. Petit sought him out 
 arid no doubt during the years he spent in Baltimore he 
 proved himself a worthy director of the Petit family. 17 A 
 most careful search has failed to reveal the correspondence 
 which probably passed between Mme. Petit and Father Du 
 Bourg after her return to France. 18 In 1803 Mme. Petit 's 
 family encouraged her to return to Lyons and she crossed the 
 Atlantic in the summer of that year with the party of Sul- 
 picians who had been recalled to France by Superior-General 
 
 16. MIGNE, Encyclopedic Theologique, Dictionnaire des Missions 
 Catlwliques, t. 1, pp. 441-446; The Metropolitan Catholic Almanac and 
 Laity's Directory for the Tear of Our Lord 1839, pp. 50-68. 
 
 17. CLARKE, in his Lives of the] Deceased Bishops of the Catholic 
 Church in the United States, Vol. 1, pp. 204-238. New York, 1888, says: 
 
 "Baltimore received her share of these afflicted fugitives and 
 extended a generous welcome to them. Mr. Du Bourg, himself a native 
 of St. Domingo, felt the warmest sympathy for his scattered countrymen, 
 and, though greatly occupied with his cares and duties at St. Mary's 
 College, he devoted himself to their relief. Homeless and penniless, 
 they were provided with shelter and support, and their spiritual wants 
 especially received from him the most generous and heroic attention. 
 To the more humble and afflicted colored people he especially devoted 
 himself, and with the aid of the Eev. John Tessier, who had been 
 Superior of St. Mary's Seminary, he gathered them together in a con- 
 gregation, and assembled them regularly for divine service in the lower 
 chapel of St. Mary's. 
 
 The most brilliant and fruitful service rendered by Bishop Du Bourg 
 to the Church, not only in America, but throughout the most remote and 
 unenlightened portions of the world, was the leading part he took in the 
 foundation of the illustrious "Association for the Propagation of the 
 Faith." It has been well said that "the establishment which Mr. 
 Du Bourg, while on his return to Louisiana from Italy, made at Lyons, 
 is of itself enough to immortalize his name. He there formed in 1815, 
 the Association for the Propagation of the Faith." 
 
 18. FOIK, Catholic Archives af America, in the Catholic Historical 
 Eeview, vol. I, p. 64, 1915, says: "Another case where priceless 
 documents went to decay occurred in New Orleans. When the Federal 
 troops threatened to destroy that city most of the papers of Bishop 
 Penalver, Bishop Du Bourg and others were concealed in a fireplace and 
 bricked up. After General Butler had been in possession of New 
 Orleans for some time the wall was removed, and then it was found 
 that no one had thought to close the chimney at the top; the rain had 
 poured down and the papers were a mass of pulp." 
 
20 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Father Emery. 19 Mme. Petit never forgot the generous hos- 
 pitality of the country which had received her after her ter- 
 rible trials in San Domingo. She kept up a correspondence 
 with many of the missionaries of the United States and in 
 particular with Father Flaget, who was to become Bishop of 
 Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1808, and with Father Du Bourg 
 who was consecrated Bishop of New Orleans at Rome in 1815. 20 
 
 -4- 
 
 Before returning to the United States after his consecra- 
 tion, Bishop Du Bourg came to Lyons to renew his acquain- 
 tance with his friends and in particular with Mme. Petit, 
 whose splendid character and profound Christian piety had 
 always appealed to him. His diocese, as he explained to Mme. 
 Petit, was larger than France, extending from the Gulf of 
 Mexico to the Canadian Border. Help was needed badly if the 
 Church in that vast region was to be given a proper start. 
 He asked her, therefore, to found a charitable association 
 for the spiritual needs of Louisiana and suggested that she 
 
 19. Cf. TESSIEK, Diary. 
 
 20. OZANAM, Notice, etc., op. cit. t p. 28; L'Oeuvre de la Propa- 
 gation de la Foi, p. 11, 1898; ibid., pp. 11-12, 1908; FRERI, op. cit., p. 5, 
 1912; ibid., in Annals, vol. LXXXV, pp. 44-45, 1922; GUASCO, op. 
 cit., pp. 15-16, 1911 ; Compte Eendu de 1871, in Annales, t. XLIV, 1872, 
 pp. 158-159, Originetf de I'Oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, in the 
 Annales, t. L, pp. 345-346; Notice sur la Fondation de I'Oeuvre de la 
 Propagation de la Foi, in the Annales, t. LII, pp. 148-149, HENRION, 
 op. cit., t. II, part ii, pp. 675-676; LOUVET, op. cit., p. 2a. The following 
 is an excerpt from a letter of Mgr. Du Bourg to the Cardinal Prefect 
 of Propaganda, from the Catholic Historical Review, vol. IV, p. 68: 
 
 Paris, Mar. 29, 1817. 
 
 If meanwhile I went to Paris, I take God to witness, it was in no 
 way for the purpose of winning the good graces of the Royal family, 
 or for any human advantage, but solely for the spiritual benefit of my 
 poor Diocese. Indeed, I went not only to Paris, but also to Belgium to 
 secure everywhere I could both active laborers and help of every kind, 
 and thank God my efforts were not fruitless. 
 
 For besides the thirteen men already arrived in my Diocese 
 (among whom are Fathers De Andreis, Eosat and Acquaroni, of the 
 Roman House of the Mission. Flaveau Rossi and Aloysius Bighi, of 
 the Roman College) twenty and more ecclesiastics are ready to sail 
 with me, with whose help we will be able to provide in some way for 
 the foundation of the Seminary and the personnel of the missions. More- 
 over with regard to the expense, His Most Christian Majesty will 
 furnish a ship, the Princess and some good Christians, money and a 
 supply of sacred utensils a very nice liberality in the present straight- 
 ened circumstances. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 21 
 
 form a group of ladies and gentlemen who would guarantee 
 a stipulated amount regularly for the maintenance of his 
 mission. Mme. Petit had already sent many articles for mis- 
 sionary purposes to Baltimore and she entered into the idea 
 of the bishop with her wonted enthusiasm. Among those 
 whom she had interested was M. Benoit Coste, a merchant of 
 Lyons. 21 She appealed to all her friends, who were among the 
 wealthy and noble class of the city. Very little is known 
 about the success of her labors, but it is certain that her or- 
 ganization, which seems to have been without a name, was 
 partially successful. 22 M. Coste had endeavored to influence 
 her in the idea of a truly catholic society that is the foun- 
 dation of a society which would embrace the entire world and 
 would assist the Missions in all parts of Christendom. Father 
 Cholleton, the Superior of the Seminary at Lyons, an intimate 
 friend of Bishop Du Bourg, was called into counsel but found 
 the very idea of one large society too vast an undertaking. 28 
 
 21. Notice sur la Fondation de I'Oeuvrc de la Propagation de la 
 Foi, in the Annales, t. L, p. 151. 
 
 22. Mme. Petit endeavored to establish a permanent organization 
 with a fixed annual contribution of one or two francs per year. Through 
 her social position and the personal influence she exercised Mme. Petit 
 was enabled to give more and more efficacious aid to the Bishops of 
 New Orleans and Bardstown. This aid chiefly comprised sacred vessels, 
 ornaments and the product of collections. Mile. Jaricot made her 
 collections among the working class whereas Mme. Petit collected from 
 the well-to-do class. 
 
 23. GUASCO, op. tit., p. 17, 1911. While Bishop Du Bourg 
 remained in Lyons, he lived at the Seminary of St. Irenaeus, of which 
 1'Abbe Cholleton was the Director. Bishop DuBourg gave two ordina- 
 tions, blessed the statue of St. Irenaeus, and gave confirmation in several 
 places. At the time of his death, several notices gave him the credit 
 for the foundation of the Society. The Annales (t. VII, p. 101), states: 
 "We simply remark that Mgr. Du Bourg is by no means the founder 
 of the Association for the Propagation of the Faith. The interest which 
 his mission inspired had no doubt great influence upon those who did 
 establish the Society; hence it was founded in part for him, but not 
 at all by him. ' ' The Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique, in an article 
 by 1'Abbe GABRIEL ANDRE, Amerique (Etats Unis d') Catholicisme, 
 p. 1056, states : "To Mgr. Du Bourg is indirectly due the establishment 
 of the Propagation of the Faith. The plan which he formed on his 
 visit to Lyons on his return from Rome in 1815, of an association of 
 women to provide for the needs of his vast diocese, was the occasion of 
 the Society ' ' L 'Abbe Cholleton was made honorary Vicar-General of 
 New Orleans by Bishop Du Bourg. Many interesting letters concerning 
 
22 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 The very grandeur of such a design seems to have frightened 
 Mme. Petit, but Coste continued repeating his own interpreta- 
 tion of the work and the result was that the two groups at 
 Lyons, finding that their designs were similar, became known 
 to each other. 
 
 Towards the end of the year 1822 Father Inglesi, the 
 Vicar-General of Bishop Du Bourg of New Orleans, came to 
 France on a mission from his superior. 24 After a few days 
 in Paris he traveled to Lyons to visit Mme. Petit and take up 
 with her the project of organizing a more compact society 
 for the purpose of assisting the Missions of his diocese. By 
 his own distinguished manners and the charm of his person- 
 ality the young Italian priest very quickly gained the sym- 
 pathy of all. In the name of Bishop Du Bourg he entered 
 the higher circles of society of Paris and even won the good 
 will of Louis XVIII and his court. The three days which 
 he passed at Lyons were spent in discussing the plans with 
 Mme. Petit and her son, and after his return from the Con- 
 gress of Ley bach (April, 1822), he went to Lyons to complete 
 the plans for his organization. M. Diclier Petit, the son of 
 Mme. Petit, called together a few of his friends to discuss the 
 project of Father Inglesi. 25 Among these was Benoit Coste, 
 who had already been assisting Pauline-Marie Jaricot in her 
 work of gathering funds for the Foreign Missions. He gave 
 the meetings of May 3, 1822, its distinctly universal phase, 
 he himself had for many years aided in organizing a society 
 for the American Missions, but he was emphatic in his decision 
 
 the founders are to be found in VICTOR GIRODON, cahier sur La 
 Fondation, etc. 
 
 24. OZANAM, op. cit. p. 29; OZANAM, Compte Eendu de 1871 
 in Annales, t. XLIV, 1872, p. 160 ; Origines, etc. in Antilles, t. L, p. 317, 
 L'Oeuvrc, ibid. p. 13, 1898; ibid. p. 13, 1908; FRERI, op. cit. p. 6, 1912; 
 ibid, in Annals, Vol. LXXXV, p. 46, 1922, GUASCO, op. cit. p. 22, 
 1911; Annales, t. LII, p. 150. Important Propaganda documents in the 
 possession of Dr. Guilday were received too late for use in the text. 
 
 25. Annales, t. LII, p. 149, "Beginning at this moment, M. Didier 
 Petit, who for a long time had identified himself with the thought, the 
 work, and the pious desires of his mother, took a more active part, if 
 not a preponderant part, in the grand work which Providence prepared. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 23 
 
 not to swerve from his ideas which would assist the Catholic 
 Missions of the entire world. 28 
 
 The first meeting was called on May 3, 1822, and there 
 were assembled the following persons: de Verne, Benoit 
 Coste, Count d'Herculais, de Villiers, Magneunin, Didier 
 Petit, Auguste Bonnet, Antoine Perisse, Terret, Victor Giro- 
 don and Father Cholleton. 
 
 The Veni Creator was said and Father Inglesi explained 
 the object of his mission and gave a detailed description of 
 the Louisiana Missions. He proposed to establish at Lyons an 
 association which would assist in a permanent manner all the 
 Catholic Missions of the world and in particular those of his 
 own diocese. This resolution was adopted unanimously on that 
 day. It took for its title, the Association de la Propagation de 
 la Foi dans les Dcux-Mondes, thus the new Society was at 
 last begun. Further objections were raised by 'Girodon, who 
 was present as the representative of Miss Jaricot, but before 
 the meeting adjourned all difficulties were settled and the 
 principle of universality which distinguished it from every 
 preceding tentative, was made a permanent feature in the 
 work. Girodon had explained the method employed by Pauline- 
 Marie in her work, that of groups of ten and of a one-cent-a- 
 week from each person and this system was immediately 
 adopted by the new Society. A Central Council was formed 
 at Lyons with the following officers: de Verne, President; 
 Coste, Vice-President ; Petit, Secretary ; de Herculais, Treas- 
 
 26. OZANAM, Notice, etc. in the Annales, t. LII, pp. 150-151, says: 
 ' ' On Thursday, May 2, 1822, M. Petit set out to seek the most important 
 men and those best known for the exercise of good works. He had 
 already been assured of the adherence of some of them when ho met 
 on the street, one of his friends, M. Benoit Coste, he briefly explained 
 to him the project and invited him to the meeting on the next. day. 
 'Willingly' replied M. Coste, 'if it is to form a more general work, 
 one extended to the whole world. 7 'Yes,' replied M. Petit with 
 feeling, as if struck by a ray of light, 'Yes, it is much better still, I 
 adopt your idea; it is grander, it must be pleasing to all.' " 
 
24 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 urer ; de Verne, de Villiers and Terret, Councillors. 27 Shortly 
 afterwards, Didier Petit went to Paris and established there 
 a local and a Superior Council- in order to have a representa- 
 tion at the capital. The result was that the two councils 
 of Lyons and of Paris worked side by side from the begin- 
 ning as they have done down to the present. Other meetings 
 were held on May 8 and May 21. On May 25, 1822, a union 
 was officially established between the work of Pauline-Marie 
 and the new Society. 28 
 
 Such is the story of the organization of the Society 
 taken from an unpublished letter written by Girodon to 
 Terret, the president of the General Council of Lyons. 
 Victor Girodon became a priest and until his death proved 
 to be a valuable aid to Pauline-Marie in her work. This 
 account is corroborated by a letter written February 
 10, 1862, by Paul Girodon, nephew of 1'Abbe Girodon, who 
 has included in his account passages from the letter of his 
 uncle. 29 By this time (1862) the controversy had arisen on 
 the subject of the foundation of this Society. The question 
 had been raised whether the credit for the organization of the 
 Society should be given to Pauline-Marie or to Bishop Du 
 Bourg and Mme. Petit, or to Benoit Coste, and much dis- 
 cussion ensued regarding the part the three groups had taken 
 in the Society's organization. Whether either of the two or- 
 ganized movements, that of Du Bourg-Petit or of Missions 
 Etrangeres-Jaricot, would have succeeded alone is difficult to 
 answer ; but there is no doubt that the idea of universality and 
 unity introduced in the meeting by Benoit Coste made a para- 
 mount change in the organization during the month of May, 
 1822. The question was raised whether the idea of a cent-a- 
 week was original with Pauline-Marie. She herself, as has been 
 
 27. OZANAM, Notice, etc., in the Annales, t. LII, pp. 151-152, Compte 
 Eendu de 1871 in the Annales, t. XLIV, pp. 160-161, Annales, t. L, pp. 
 317-318, OZANAM, Melanges, pp. 30-31; L'Oeuvre, etc., p. 13, 1898; 
 ibid. p. 13, 1908; FRERI, op. cit., p. 7, 1912; ibid, in Annals, p. 46, 
 1922, GUASCO, op. cit., p. 22, 1911. 
 
 28. GUASCO, op. cit., p. 24. 
 
 29. This letter is in the cahier of VICTOR GIRODON, La Fon- 
 dation, etc. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 25 
 
 already stated, repudiated any connection between her own 
 plans and those of the Protestant Missionary activity. It is 
 not possible to settle the problem of who was responsible for 
 the amalgamation of the two movements or of the division of 
 the associates into groups of ten. At a distance of a hundred 
 years, it would seem, however, that one without the other 
 would not have succeeded so well as has the Society. In the 
 first year contributions were divided among the American 
 Missions and the Seminary for Foreign Missions. From that 
 time down to the close of the century the Church in the 
 United States has been aided to an incredible extent by the 
 Society. 
 
26 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SOCIETY 
 
 (May 3-25, 1822) 
 
 The two distinct movements towards the ideal embodied 
 in the Rule of the Society were finally combined in a 
 series of meetings, held in Lyons, during the month of May, 
 1822. "In the designs of Providence who seemed henceforth 
 to conduct the government of the Society without the aid of 
 man," writes Ozanam, "the first meeting was held, without 
 premeditation, on Friday, May the third, the feast of the 
 finding of the Holy Cross." 1 
 
 A provisional bureau was formed; and M. de Verna was 
 delegated to draw up a Rule. For this purpose there was 
 named a committee composed of Messrs. Terret, Petit and 
 de Villiers, while M. Terret was charged with the work of 
 settling the method for collecting funds. M. Terret then 
 interviewed his employee M. Girodon, and through him asked 
 to be acquainted with the intentions of Mile. Jaricot. 2 After 
 some hesitancy, inspired solely by her desire for good, Mile. 
 Jaricot and her collaborators adhered to the projects of this 
 first meeting. A second meeting, more numerous than that 
 of May the third, took place on the eighth; a third assembly 
 was held on the twenty-first: and finally in a meeting held 
 the twenty-fifth of May, 1822, the First Rule was adopted. 
 The Bureau was constituted in definitive manner with M. de 
 
 1. OZANAM, Origines, etc., in the Annales, t. L, p. 317, 1878; 
 Compte Rendu de 1871, in the Annales, t. XLIV, p. 161, 1872; OZANAM, 
 Melanges, t. 11, p. 30, 1872; L'Oeiwre de la Propagation de la Foi,} 
 p. 14, 1898, ibid., p. 13, 1908; FRERI, op. cit., p. 7, 1912; ibid., in the 
 Annals, vol. LXXXV, p. 46, 1922; HENRION, Histoire, etc., t. II, part 
 ii, p. 676; LOUVET, op. cit., p. 2a. 
 
 2. OZANAM, Melanges, t. II, p. 30, 1872; Compte Eendu de 1871, 
 in the Annales, t. XLIV, p. 161, 1872; Notice, etc., in the Annales, t. 
 LII p. 152; L'Oeuvre, etc., p. 13, 1898; ibid., p. 13, 1908; FRERI, op. 
 cit., p. 7, 1912; ibid., in Annals, vol. LXXXV, p. 46, 1922; GUASCO, 
 op. cit., p. 24, 1911. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 27 
 
 Verna as President, M. Benoit Coste as Vice-President, M. de 
 Herculais as Treasurer, and M. Petit as Secretary. The Society 
 was now formed, and approbation of episcopal authority was 
 immediately obtained. A diocesan committee, composed of 
 seven members was then constituted. 
 
 In one of the earliest numbers of the Annales, this original 
 Rule is given as follows : 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT AND OBJECT OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Art. I. There is founded in France a pious association, taking 
 
 the title of Association for the Propagation of the Faith. 
 
 Art. II. It has for its object to extend the society of the Catholic 
 faithful by aiding with all the means in its power, the 
 Missionaries charged to spread the lights of the faith 
 among the foreign nations of both hemispheres. 
 
 Art. III. It is composed of all the faithful of both sexes, whose 
 Christian conduct is calculated to call down upon this 
 enterprise the benediction of God. 
 
 DIVISION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Art. IV. The Association is divided in divisions, in centuries, in 
 sections. 
 
 Art. V. Ten members form a section, ten sections a century, ten 
 
 centuries a division. 
 
 Art. VI. Each division, each century, each section, has a chief. 
 
 Art. VII. The chiefs of division of a diocese share the right of 
 the council of administration of the Association in the 
 diocese. They correspond on one side with the council, 
 on the other with chiefs of their centuries. 
 
 Art. VIII. The chiefs of the century are named by the chief of their 
 division. They correspond on one side with the chief, on 
 the other with the chiefs of their sections. 
 
 Art. IX. The chiefs of section are named by the chief of their 
 century and correspond with him. Each of them is charged 
 to provide for the replacement of members who cease to 
 take part in their section. 
 
 Art. X. Each chief of division, of century, or of section keeps an 
 
 exact list of the ten persons who depend upon his admin- 
 istration. He communicates it to his superior chiefs every 
 time they demand it. 
 
28 
 
 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Art. XI. In no case can the divisions, centuries or sections meet in 
 assembly. 
 
 MEANS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Art. XII. The principal means upon which the Association founds 
 its hope of attaining the object which it proposes for itself 
 are prayer and alms. 
 
 Art. XIII. To call down the graces of God upon the Association and 
 upon the Missions each associate is invited to say every 
 day an Our Father and a Hail Mary. It is sufficient for 
 that to apply to this intention and once for all, the Our 
 Father and the Hail Mary of his morning or night prayer; 
 he will join to it this invocation: St. Francis Xavier, 
 pray for us. 
 
 Art. XIV. The Association chooses as more particular epochs of 
 prayer and of thanksgiving, the feast of the Finding of 
 the Holy Cross, day on which the Association was founded 
 at Lyons, May 3rd of the year 1822, and the feast of St. 
 Francis Xavier, whom it recognizes as its patron (3 De- 
 cember) ; there shall be celebrated on these days a mass 
 for the success of the work, in all the cities where the 
 councils are established. 
 
 Art. XV. Each Associate gives in alms for the Missions, one cent 
 each week. 
 
 Art. XVI. The chiefs of sections collect the contributions of the 
 members of their section, and place the product, the first 
 Sunday of each month, in the hands of their chief of 
 century: each chief of section answers for ten contribu- 
 tions. 
 
 Art. XVII. The chiefs of the century send inte the hands of their 
 chief of division in the month, the sums which they have 
 received from the chiefs of their sections. 
 
 Art. XVIII. The chiefs of division render an account at the earliest 
 meeting of the council of which they form a part. 
 
 Art. XIX. The Superior Council of the Association distributes the 
 funds: it makes distribution according to the needs of 
 the different Missions. 
 
 Art. XX. The Association publishes a general bulletin of news which 
 comes to it from the Missions. 8 
 
 3. Association de la Propagation de la Foi, in the Annales, t. I, 
 fasc. iii, pp. 30-32; Extrait du Keglement, in the Annales, t. I, fasc. 
 vi, pp. 93-96. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 29 
 
 In the month of July, 1822, this First Rule of the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Faith, was communicated to 
 Bishop Du Bourg. The prelate replied by a letter dated 
 Washington, January 29, 1823 : 
 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 It is quite late for me to testify to the admiration and the gratitude 
 which were excited within me by reading the plan for the Association 
 for the Propagation of the Faith, which your zeal for the Missions, and 
 for my mission has inspired in you, and of which you have been kind 
 enough to send me a copy. The reason of this delay will be very plain 
 to you when you know that my successive changes have prevented me from 
 reaching home earlier. The plan of your Association, Gentlemen, praises 
 your discernment as much as your piety. This ruling body, so fitted to 
 facilitate collections, to bring back all to unity in the distribution of 
 funds between the Missions of the Orient and that of Louisiana and 
 that of Kentucky all looks to me to be perfectly conceived. I do not 
 doubt that He who inspired in you the courage to undertake it and the 
 wisdom to outline the plan of conducting it will also give you constancy 
 enough to put it into execution. There will be difficulties of detail, a 
 diversified correspondence to keep up, which might fatigue men less 
 constant in their good, or animated by less pure views, but the remem- 
 brance of how much difficulty and pain it cost Jesus Christ for the 
 redemption of our souls, the happiness of concurring with Him and His 
 envoys, in the salvation of so many other whom the absence of pecuniary 
 assistance would leave eternally deprived of this happiness, are motives 
 whose strength will not be weakened in hearts where Faith rules. 4 
 
 The Apostle of Kentucky, Bishop Flaget, to whom his 
 venerable colleague of New Orleans had sent a copy of the 
 Rule, after familiarizing himself with it, wrote in turn to 
 Lyons : 
 
 All these papers, as you can imagine, were received with joy and 
 read and reread with great avidity. I admired the wisdom of the Rule, 
 its simplicity, and the incalculable good which will result from it. It 
 seems to me that all Christian kings and the Sovereign Pontiff himself, 
 should be the first to encourage it. Those who have concurred in the 
 formation of this vast plan to propagate our holy religion merit all 
 our gratitude. 5 
 
 4. GUASCO, op. cit., p. 41, 1911. 
 
 5. GUASCO, op. cit., p. 42, 1911. 
 
 
30 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Acting upon the advice of the American prelates, as well 
 as by the experience the leaders of the Society had gained 
 in these early years, a revision of the Rules was made, the 
 Second Rule was published in April, 1834. 
 
 REVISED RULES 
 
 The members of the two Councils of Paris and of Lyons, having 
 believed it to be fitting to revise the Constitutional (constitutif) Rule 
 of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith which is nothing other 
 than a concurrence of alms and of prayers in favor of the Catholic 
 Missionaries who carry the torch of faith into the countries across 
 the sea, 
 
 Adopt in the following terms the rule which constitutes it: 
 
 ARTICLE ONE 
 
 The Society of piety and of charity called the Propagation of 
 the Faith has for its unique object to aid by its prayers and its alms 
 the Catholic Missionaries charged with the preaching of the Gospel in 
 the countries across the sea. 
 
 ARTICLE Two 
 
 To call down graces from on high upon the men who devote them- 
 selves to the foreign Missions, upon their work and upon the Society 
 which must contribute to their success, one (each member) will recite 
 every day an Our Father and a Hail Mary; it will suffice to apply to 
 this intention, and once for all, the Our Father and the Hail Mary of 
 the morning or the night prayers. One will join to this each time the 
 invocation: St. Francis Xavier, pray for us. 
 
 ARTICLE THREE 
 The alms or subscription is one cent a week. 
 
 ARTICLE FOUR 
 
 The total of the subscriptions is placed in the hands of the two 
 cashiers residing one at Paris and the other at Lyons. 
 
 ARTICLE FIVE 
 
 The Councils, of which there are only two, one at Paris and the 
 other at Lyons, are each composed of eight members and of a cashier 
 who has a deliberative voice. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 31 
 
 Each Council is self-recruiting by voice of election; it chooses its 
 President and its cashier and comes to an understanding with the other 
 Council concerning the division (repartition) of the funds between the 
 different missions. 
 
 ARTICLE Six 
 
 The functions of the President endure five years, those of the 
 cashier only cease by death, revocation or resignation. 
 
 Each member of the Council is named for seven years at the 
 end of which the replacement takes place without there being here any 
 matter of dispute. 
 
 With regard to the members actually in service lot will indicate 
 each year, during seven years, the one among them who should cease 
 to participate in the Council. 
 
 All these functions are essentially gratuitous. 
 
 ARTICLE SEVEN 
 
 The faithful who contribute to this good work and who are not 
 members of the two Councils, are and remain entirely foreign to the 
 administration. 
 
 They are simply subscribers. 
 
 This disposition applies to persons who receive alms. 
 
 Moreover, there do not exist among the subscribers, even 
 among those of the same city, of the same parish, or who place their 
 contribution with the same person, any other bonds than the union of 
 their prayers and of their alms. 
 
 The Society has no place for any meeting, either general or 
 particular, even among the subscribers who reside in the same parish 
 or who pay to the same person. 
 
 * 
 
 ARTICLE EIGHT 
 
 The two Councils, in order to facilitate their collections, will, 
 conjointly with the Council to which they are attached, designate in 
 each diocese a subscriber who there collects the sums given. 
 
 All persons, who at the present time are willing to take the pains 
 to collect the alms, are requested to continue, as in the past, their careful 
 attention in this collection. * 
 
 ARTICLE NINE 
 
 The news received from the Mission is published under the 
 direction of the two Councils, in a publication (recueil) destined to 
 continue the Lettres Edifiantes, under the title of the Annales de la 
 
32 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Propagation de la Foi. This publication, moreover, includes every year 
 the statement of the alms collected by dioceses and their distribution to 
 the different Missions. 
 
 Subscribers are enabled to read the Annales gratuitously. 
 
 ARTICLE TEN 
 
 Subscribers are invited to assist at mass the day of the feast 
 of the Finding of the Holy Cross, the anniversary of the foundation of 
 the Society in the City of Lyons in 1822, and the day of the feast of 
 St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle of India. 
 
 ARTICLE- ELEVEN 
 
 All the ancient rules and prospectuses of the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Faith are and remain abrogated." 
 
 The Rule itself evidences the fact that the Society has for 
 its end the extension of the flock of the faithful by all 
 means in its power, particularly by aiding missionaries 
 charged with spreading the light of the Gospel among the 
 foreign nations of both hemispheres. This aid took the form 
 of prayers and offerings from the faithful. The motive behind 
 the activity of the Society is to procure for men eternal salva- 
 tion, to substitute civilization for barbarism and to relieve 
 innumerable misfortunes. 7 The Society for the Propagation 
 of the Faith takes no part, however, in selecting these mis- 
 sionaries, or in appointing them to their fields. It does not 
 train them for their duties, and it does not concern itself with 
 the spiritual administration of the Missions. These functions 
 are all performed by the usual Church authorities. 8 The 
 Society engaged itself solely, from the beginning, in the col- 
 lection and distribution of temporal resources of charity in 
 flie service of the Apostolate. It proposed to facilitate the 
 departure of the missionaries by paying their passage, the 
 expense of which reached an enormous figure, especially for 
 long voyages. Each Associate undertook to say for the inten- 
 
 6. Supplement to the Annales, April, 1834, t. VII, fasc. XXXVI, 
 pp. 1-4. 
 
 7. Prospectus printed in Lyons, May, 1835, quoted in GUASCO, op. 
 cit., p. 15, 1911. 
 
 8. FRERI, op. cit., p. 12, 1812; iUd., in the Annals, vol. LXXXV, 
 p. 51, 1922. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 33 
 
 tion of the Mission an Our Father and Hail Mary with the 
 invocation : St. Francis Xavier pray for us, each day : and to 
 contribute a penny a week for the Missions. The bases, there- 
 fore, of the Society were and are prayer for each day and a 
 cent each week. No limits were placed upon its field ; for the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Faith has always been 
 ready, to the full extent of its powers, to assist all the Catholic 
 Missions in whatever part of the world they may be situated or 
 to whatever nationality the missionaries evangelizing them 
 may belong. However, as soon as the Missions are in the 
 least degree able to help themselves, the Society gradually 
 withdraws its aid, because the demands are many and the 
 resources inadequate. It is not the aim of the Society to help 
 those countries which are generally known as Catholic coun- 
 tries, however great their needs may be : for that reason 
 France, Italy, Austria, Spain, etc., have never received any 
 help from it. 10 Only the requests of bishops, vicars apostolic 
 and superiors of religious in charge of Missions are considered 
 by the Councils, and such petitions, whether acted upon favor- 
 ably or unfavorably, must be renewed every year. Founded 
 by the laity, the administration of the Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Faith is almost entirely in their hands, few 
 priests have taken an active part in its councils. 11 This fact is 
 important, for it shows that the Society, wholly spiritual in its 
 end, without any other object than the salvation of souls and 
 the transmission of the Gospel to entire nations among whom 
 the torch of faith has never yet shone, an institution solemnly 
 approved by the Supreme Chief of the Church, and making 
 the name of France cherished in every part of the world has 
 been from the beginning a distinctly lay organization. 12 
 
 M. Alexandre Guasco, the General Secretary of the Central 
 Council, calls the Society a work of faith, of zeal, of charity 
 
 9. FRERI, op. cit., p. 15, 1912; ibid., in the Annals, vol. LXXXV, 
 p. 56, 1922. 
 
 10. FRERI, ut supra. 
 
 11. FRERI, op. cit., p. 14, 1912; ibid., in the Annals, vol. LXXXV, 
 p. 54, 1922, 
 
 12. Annales, t. II, p. 81. 
 
34 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 and of patriotism. "How much good of all kinds," he says, 
 "has befallen us through the work of our missionaries, who 
 with our help have gone forth to carry far the name of our 
 country, have won sympathy for it and have contributed to 
 assure it material riches." 
 
 In an article written for L'Echo de Paris, Baudrillart 
 throws considerable light upon the patriotic attitude of the 
 French missionary. 14 "From the Propagation of the Faith," 
 he says, * ' comes in the greater part the material and financial 
 resources of the Catholic Missions for the entire world, and 
 these resources, collected throughout all the universe, are 
 united and divided .by the Councils of Paris and of Lyons. 
 It follows that all the missionaries, of whatever nationality 
 they may be, and in whatever country they may labor, depend 
 in an appreciable measure upon this French centre. Another 
 consequence is that not only French interests engaged in 
 Catholic Missions are particularly safeguarded, but the 
 French missionaries are subsidized by the Catholics of foreign 
 nationality. 
 
 "It is not possible to separate the missionary and his 
 nationality and to prevent the latter from profiting from the 
 labor of the former, it follows that even today the French 
 interests evidently engaged in the Catholic Missions are sus- 
 tained to an important extent by the money of foreign 
 Catholics. For if France furnishes two-thirds of the per- 
 sonnel it contributes only a third of the pecuniary subsidies. ' ' 
 
 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith met with 
 difficulties at the very beginning. The first of these is the 
 scandal caused by Father Inglesi. Father Inglesi, Honorary 
 Vicar-General of New Orleans, whose visit to Lyons had been 
 the occasion of the foundation of the Society, now proved to 
 be the source of one of its gravest dangers. An enlightening 
 note on Father Inglesi 's misappropriation of some of the 
 early funds of the Society entrusted to his care is found in a 
 letter from Bishop Plcssis of Quebec, dated October 25, 1824, 
 
 13. GUASCO, op. tit., p. 15, 1911. 
 
 14. BAUDRILLART, in the Echo de Paris, Feb. 14, 1921. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 35 
 
 written to Archbishop Marechal: ''Bishop Du Bourg has not 
 written me since I enlightened him concerning Inglesi who 
 grossly deceived him. It is said, and I am extremely grieved 
 to hear it, that the prelate has done evil in his temporal affairs 
 and finds himself embarrassed with large debts contracted by 
 his establishment at St. Louis, Missouri." Unfortunately, 
 there had been placed in his hands at Lyons and elsewhere 
 considerable alms of which he never rendered account. A 
 letter from Monsignor Du Bourg unveiled his artifice and 
 his improbity. None of the money which had been confided 
 to him could be obtained, and it was necessary to keep silent 
 concerning these unworthy and false representatives, in order 
 not to compromise a work happily established and one which 
 was of such great assistance for the distant Missions. The 
 directors of the Society thereafter employed the wisest meas- 
 ures to shield the fund from all cupidity. Inglesi did not 
 profit long by his iniquity, for at the close of a few months, 
 although he was in the full vigor of age and health, he was 
 called to render an account of his stewardship before the 
 just Judge. 16 Opposition arose also from a place the least 
 suspected the Chamber of Deputies at Paris. The Society 
 was attacked as a secret organization managed by the Jesuits." 
 An answer was promptly made to this attack, and Parisian 
 Catholics were encouraged by the brilliant defence by Mon- 
 seigneur Frayssinous, Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs in 
 the realm. 18 
 
 "Certainly it was a most Christian, most noble, and most 
 wise political thought," he said, which Louis XIV conceived 
 in founding at Paris itself a house for the Missions-Btrang- 
 eres. This institution was destined to carry to the very 
 furthermost parts of the Orient the glory of the French name, 
 as well as the light of the Gospel. * ' This house still exists ; 
 
 15. This letter was located in the archives of the Seminaire de 
 Saint-Sulpice, Paris. 
 
 16. CARDINAL VILLECOURT, quoted in MAURIN, op. cit., p. 112, Paris, 
 1892. 
 
 17. LAUNAY, Histoire Generate de la Societe des Missions fitrangeres 
 t. II, p. 518; GUASCO, op. cit., p. 48, 1911. 
 
 18. GUASCO, op. cit., pp. 48-49, 1911. 
 
36 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 it has survived our religious and political storms; not, how- 
 ever, without having suffered most serious results from them. 
 It no longer has the same subsidy nor the same resources. It 
 is a matter of common knowledge that zeal for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Faith has at all times been one of the characteristics 
 of the Christian Church. It is by this zeal that the Gospel 
 must successively make the conquest of the world, the Faith 
 must triumph over idolatry and everywhere the Kingdom 
 of Christ must be established. It is this same zeal which took 
 possession of some ecclesiastics and pious laymen of Lyons. 
 They saw that the Foreign Missions were menaced with deca- 
 dence. They conceived the idea of forming an Association to 
 support the Missions and procure assistance for them. This 
 Association took the name of the Propagation of the Faith. 
 There is nothing mysterious in this name. It is not new. At 
 Rome there is the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, 
 at the head of which is a member of the Sacred College. The 
 authors of the project, he continues, had sent their prospectus 
 into the different dioceses and addressed it to almost all our 
 bishops. Many of them have adopted this work. It was very 
 necessary to organize the Association and to make a unit of 
 it, to find means of collecting the alms of the faithful and 
 having them reach their destination. ' ' Frayssinous pointed 
 out that it was not a question of a contribution but of a 
 perfectly voluntary offering. The mites of the poor as well 
 as the gold of the rich were given. Nothing could be more 
 in conformity with the spirit of Christianity, since similar 
 collections were made at its very origin to relieve the poor 
 of Jerusalem. In this there was nothing secret, nothing 
 political. Every year the results of the collections were being 
 published and up to that time the largest amount raised by 
 the whole of France was only 80,000 francs. The use of this 
 money was made known and even the correspondence main- 
 tained with the missionaries in the two hemispheres was 
 published. Sums have been sent to the Orient to assist 
 Christians and to provide the necessary establishments: they 
 
 19. Annales, t. Ill, pp. 103-105, 1828. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 37 
 
 have been sent to North and South America, into the provinces 
 of Kentucky and into Louisiana, over which, as he emphasized, 
 a French bishop, Mgr. Du Bourg, a man of very rare mind 
 and capacity, presided. In all of this, there was nothing 
 extraordinary, and so, the Chamber had no reason for becom- 
 ing alarmed. No one could say that this Association was a 
 state within the State. 
 
 The Society was also attacked in the press in 1826, and 
 it is to this attack also that Frayssinous replied on May 25 
 of this same year in his address to the Chamber, from which 
 we have quoted. In 1836 those who took offence at the 
 progress of the Society went so far as to pretend that the 
 larger part of the sums collected from the faithful of France 
 for the Propagation of the Faith and for the defense of the 
 Church, sums which were necessary for persecuted Catholics 
 and for other pious objects, went almost exclusively to pay the 
 expenses of the Infant of Portugal. Frayssinous replied that 
 in Portugal the accusation of making a collection for Don 
 Miguel had been taken up, and that it was fully answered by 
 the publicity given the disbursements in the Annales. The 
 Ami de la Religion replied to these absurd attacks in taking 
 as a basic principle for its response the fact that the disburse- 
 ments had been published every year. Moreover, in the midst 
 of political agitation the Society was for a long time pro- 
 scribed in a Catholic country, Spain. 20 
 
 The publicity to the allocations which the administrators 
 of the Society had given from the very beginning, has been, 
 during the term of its long existence, a safeguard of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Faith as far as Govern- 
 ment, subscribers and beneficiaries are concerned. The 
 calumnies have passed, and if, in remote instances, up to our 
 epoch, articles have appeared which were based on misin- 
 formation, there has been neither an echo nor any consequence 
 to it. In spite of these and other attacks raised against the 
 Society, its progress was phenomenal from the very beginning. 
 "In proportion as it is added to the number of its years," 
 
 20. GUASCO, op. cit., p. 50, 1911. 
 
38 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 said the official statement of 1841, published in the Annales 
 of 1842, ''our Society was blessed by Heaven and multiplied 
 its progress. It is a river which continues to become larger 
 as it recedes from its source. And just as the last total col- 
 lection far exceeded the preceding ones, so also day by day 
 the final statement gives way before a higher amount. ' ' The 
 formal' approval given to the Central Councils by the Holy 
 See, the constant encouragement of the episcopate of the 
 world, the gratitude of missionaries, and the efforts of the 
 most illustrious among men to support and spread it by their 
 words and their writings permitted the Society for the Prop- 
 agation' of the Faith to establish itself firmly during the 
 first twenty years of its existence. 
 
 As Leo XIII pointed out in his Encyclical Sancta Dei 
 civitas of December 3, 1880, the success of the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Faith inspired many others in different 
 countries to organize similar institutions. 22 In France, for 
 example, there were founded shortly after the beginning of 
 the Lyons Society, two others with similar ends: there were 
 the Association of the Holy Childhood, and the Schools of the 
 Orient. At Vienna the Leopoldine Association was founded 
 in 1828-29 with the same purpose; and at Munich, the 
 Ludwig-Missionsverein was started in 1838. "At the same 
 time," wrote Leo XIII, "due to the emulation of piety, two 
 other societies were formed, one called the Holy Childhood 
 of Jesus and the other the Schools of the Orient. The former 
 proposes to save and to lead to Christian habits unfortunate 
 children whom their parents, driven by sloth or by misery, 
 inhumanely leave unprotected, especially in the regions of 
 China where this barbarous custom still prevails. These 
 infants are saved by the charity of the faithful and at times 
 redeemed by being washed in the waters of Christian regen- 
 eration. 
 
 21. Compte Eendu de 1841, in the Annales, t. p. 1842. 
 
 22. LEO XIII, Encyclical Letter Sancta Dei Civitas, in the 
 Annales, t. LIII, pp. 79-94; Missions Catholiques, t. XII, pp. 613-618, 
 
 1880. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 39 
 
 These Societies came to the aid of the older Society, the 
 Propagation of the Faith, and were united to it by a cordial 
 agreement; they have the same end, and likewise rely on the 
 alms and prayers of Christian people. All three have for 
 their object to bring by the diffusion of the light of the 
 Gospel, the largest possible number of those outside of the 
 Church to know God and to adore Him, and Him whom He 
 has sent, Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Association of the Holy Childhood is a children's 
 association for the benefit of Foreign Missions. Some twenty 
 years after the foundation of the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Faith (1843), Bishop Charles de Forbin-Janson, of 
 Nancy, established the Society of the Holy Childhood (Asso- 
 ciation de la Sainte Enfance}, for the twofold purpose of 
 rallying around the Infant Jesus little children from their 
 tenderest years, and of encouraging them by the practice of 
 charity to co-operate in saving from death and sin the many 
 thousands of children in pagan countries who are neglected 
 by their parents and cast away unbaptized. The further 
 object of the association is to procure baptism for those 
 abandoned little ones, and, should they live, to make of them 
 craftsmen, teachers, doctors or priests, who in turn will spread 
 the blessings of the Christian religion amongst their country- 
 men. Children become members of the association immedi- 
 ately after baptism, and may continue in membership for the 
 remainder of their lives, but at the age of twenty-one, in 
 order to share in the indulgences, it is necessary to become 
 also a member of the Association for the Propagation 
 of the Faith. The monthly contribution is one cent, or a 
 yearly contribution of twelve cents, and the members recite 
 daily one Hail Mary with the addition, Holy Virgin Mary, 
 pray for us and for the poor pagan children. Until the chil- 
 dren are able to do this themselves their relatives do it for 
 them. The affairs of the Holy Childhood are managed by 
 an international council at Paris, France, consisting of fifteen 
 priests and as many laymen, with a general director as 
 
40 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 the presiding officer. It is estimated that at the present 
 time there are enrolled in the Association about seven mil- 
 lion Catholic children. Fully thirty-two millions of dollars 
 are the result of their generosity, and about eighteen millions 
 of pagan children have thus been saved to the Church. 23 
 
 The Society of the Schools of the Orient was founded in 
 1855-56 to assist the schools, orphanages, asylums of the 
 countries of the East. During later years, as a consequence 
 of the special preoccupations of Pope Leo XIII, its object 
 has been made more precise. It labors to maintain and propa- 
 gate the union of the churches by the education of the new 
 generation and especially by the formation of a good clergy 
 in the different oriental rites. Its budget has rather great 
 and irregular fluctuations due, no doubt, to the fact that 
 it is not so well known as the preceding societies. The total 
 of its ordinary subscriptions from 1855 to 1899 has been 
 10,650,000 fr. of which 9,890,000 f r. were furnished by France. 
 It is also helped by the French Government. 
 
 The Apostolic Society under the patronage of the Holy 
 Women of the Gospel was founded in 1838 at Orleans by 
 Mile. Duchesne, who consecrated her life to it. Its purpose 
 is to furnish vestments and altar linens to the Missions. At 
 the end of thirty years the Society had been established 
 in thirty-two cities. 
 
 The Leopoldine Association is the direct result of a cry 
 for urgent help from Father Frederic Rese, then Vicar-Gen- 
 eral of Cincinnati and later first Bishop of Detroit. In 1828, 
 he went to Europe to solicit priests as well as funds for the 
 Ohio Missions, a territory as large as France, and in which 
 only sixteen priests were' ministering to 40,000 Catholics. 
 The Prince- Archbishop of Vienna, Leopold-Maxmilian became 
 enthusiastic over the project of organizing a special society 
 for the support of American Missions and to this end obtained 
 an audience for Father Rese with the Emperor Francis I. 
 
 23. WILLMS, Holy Childhood, in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 
 VII, pp. 399-400; Of. LOUVET, op. cit., pp. 12a-16a; PIOLET, Nos 
 Missions ct Nos Missionaires, p. 15. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 41 
 
 By a bull Quamquam plura sint dated January 30, 1829, 
 Pope Leo XII sanctioned the proposed society, and it was 
 officially established on May 13, 1829, in the Archbishop's 
 palace at Vienna. In his address before the select assembly, 
 Father Rese said : * ' The Catholics of North America, especi- 
 ally of Ohio, Michigan and the Northwest, appeal to you 
 through me, that you might become their helping angels." 
 The Society was christened Leopoldinen-Stiftung to com- 
 memorate the beautiful life of the Archduchess Leopoldina, 
 daughter of Francis I, who died in America as Empress of 
 Brazil, having been the wife of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. 
 The objects of the society, as briefly stated in its statutes, are : 
 The promotion of greater efficiency in the Catholic Missions 
 of America, and the participation and the edification of the 
 faithful in extending the Church of Jesus Christ unto the 
 remotest regions of the earth. The means selected to attain 
 these ends were, as with the Lyons Society, prayer and alms- 
 deeds. Every member obliges himself to recite daily one Our 
 Father and the Angelus, with the added petition : St. Leopold, 
 pray for us. 
 
 To collect funds the Lyons method was followed. 
 Circles of ten members were formed in all the parishes 
 throughout the Empire and the promoter of each circle would 
 deliver the collected moneys to the respective pastor, who in 
 turn would send them to the local dean and the latter would 
 deliver these funds to the Ordinary every three months. The 
 Bishops would then send their reports to the Central Bureau 
 at Vienna. The total receipts of the first year amounted to 
 49,823 fl. Every year the entire Austrian clergy was re- 
 quested to appeal to their congregations on the Feast of St. 
 Leopold for contributions toward the support of American 
 Missions. It has been carefully estimated that within the 
 first decade of its existence (1829-1839), this society had 
 contributed to the American Missions the sum of $220,000. 
 Let us not forget that the bulk of these contributions 
 came from the laboring classes and from servant girls, 
 although the nobility also contributed generously. In addi- 
 
42 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 tion to the actual funds, the Leopoldine Association sent many 
 religious articles every few months, such as books, chalices, 
 copes, vestments, rosaries, oil stocks, paintings, bells, censors, 
 altar linens, crucifixes, etc., to the Missions in America. 24 
 
 The Ludwig-Missionsverein was begun in the year 1828, 
 when the Reverend Frederic Rese, Vicar-General of Cincin- 
 nati, went to Munich to ask help for the Mission work in the 
 United States. With the sanction of King Louis I of Bavaria, 
 voluntary offerings for the assistance of American and of 
 Asiatic Missions were collected. But the contributions were 
 confined chiefly to the clergy of the eight dioceses of Bavaria. 
 The money, up to the year 1838, approximately 15,000 fl. 
 (25,800 marks), was deposited with the Archbishop of 
 Munich-Freising, and thence sent direct to Vicar-General 
 Rese in Cincinnati. During this time the knowledge of the 
 work being done by the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith, was being spread among the laity of Bavaria by the 
 German edition of the Annales. Since the organizing of 
 societies and the gathering of money was at that time for- 
 bidden in Bavaria, Father Stumpf, of the Cathedral, was 
 asked by his superiors to account for his activity in behalf 
 of the Society of Lyons. Meantime, Rese had returned to 
 Munich, and this time with a plan for the unification of the 
 various organizations existing in Bavaria and dedicated to the 
 extension of the Catholic Faith by assisting Foreign Missions. 
 In this way, he hoped to increase the contributions. To put 
 his plan into execution, he addressed a petition to King Louis 
 I on April 22, 1838, asking that the Mission society already 
 existing in a large part of Bavaria be reorganized into a 
 general society extending over the whole of Bavaria, which 
 would then be constituted as a self -sufficient and independent 
 Bavarian society under royal protection, but at the same time 
 empowered to establish relations with the Holy See, with the 
 Leopoldinen-Stiftung in Austria and with every other German 
 
 24. EPSTEIN, The T^eopoldine Association, etc., in the Illinois 
 
 1920; Cf. 
 Unis, pp. 
 
 ' .*-rt><-'/L/C>l*PftC' AlOaWVfVVWOTVt OC't/.. HI til 1 
 
 Catholic Historical Review, vol. Ill, no. i, pp. 88-92, July, 1920; Cf. 
 DE MEAUX, L 'figlise Catholique et la Liberte aux Mats- 
 
 244-245, Paris, 1893. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 43 
 
 society of a similar kind. Both petition and statutes were 
 first officially submitted to the Archbishop of Munich-Freising 
 for his approval. They were given with the highest recommen- 
 dation. Two months later (July 17), royal sanction was 
 granted. The statutes of the new society were sanctioned on 
 December 12, 1838, by the King. The means chosen were 
 the same as those of the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith, and the same process of collection was adhered to; of 
 these funds, two-thirds of the contributions were assigned to 
 the needs of the Missions in Asia and in North America, and 
 one-third for the Fathers in charge of the Holy Sepulchre, 
 at Jerusalem. 28 
 
 Rapid as has been the growth of the offerings to the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Faith, it has been below 
 that of similar Protestant Societies. These Protestant So- 
 cieties had, it is true, begun earlier; but even today, the 
 abundance of offerings in the Catholic Societies cannot be com- 
 pared to the liberality of our separated brethren. 
 
 All the great sects of Protestantism have their mission- 
 aries and their budget. They consider that the propagation 
 of the Christian Faith is an absolute duty for every Christian, 
 and their catechisms, so light in doctrine, have a lesson 
 destined to explain this obligation of conscience. Moreover, 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel of London (8. 
 P. 6r.), prints and furnishes freely, all the books necessary 
 for the Missions. In the month of February, 1836, the Asiatic 
 Journal of London published in the statement of the sums 
 received during the course of the year 1836 by the Bible 
 societies and the committees of different Protestant Missions. 
 The receipts amounted to about 20,000,000 francs or 778,035 
 
 25. SCHABERT, The Ludwig-Missionsverein, in the Catholic nis- 
 torical Review, p. 23, April, 1922. In July, 1920, I visited Germany and 
 attempted to go to Munich in order to carry on a research in the 
 archives of this Society, and to procure their collection of Annalcn but 
 since diplomatic negotiations had not been reestablished with the Cen- 
 tral Powers, certain parts of Germany were closed to strangers, and 
 no passport visa would be given for Munich. Dr. Schabert whom 
 I met at Louvain volunteered to make a special trip to Munich where 
 he procured all its publications for the Catholic University and from 
 his research, procured the material for this article. 
 
44 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 pounds sterling, to which were added the subscriptions opened 
 in all the colonies under the British Government. The Annales 
 de la Propagation de la Foi make the observation on this 
 point, that if one adds to this what was collected in the United 
 Kingdom and its possessions, and the collections of the other 
 Protestant countries, there would be no exaggeration in de- 
 claring that the total sum collected for the support of the 
 Protestant Missions far surpasses 30,000,000 francs per year. 
 The resources placed at the disposal of Protestant action has 
 left an ever-increasing record. 
 
 According to an article which appeared in the Ami du 
 Clerge, of Oct. 26, 1899, the faithful of the Anglican Church, 
 outside of the gifts offered by the different associations, gave 
 as subscriptions for the Foreign Missions a sum corresponding 
 to 23,245,675 francs. In addition to the societies supporting 
 the personnel there are those which distribute books and 
 Bibles like the British and Foreign Bible Society, which in 
 one year from March 31, 1896, to March 31, 1897, spent a 
 sum equivalent to 5,092,025 francs. Let us also cite the 
 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Church of 
 England Zenana Missionary Society, established in 1880 for 
 the special purpose of evangelizing Indian women, the Mis- 
 sionary Leaves Association, the Junior Clergy Association. 
 The total of the generosities of English Protestants for their 
 missions is estimated as high as 50,000,000 francs. The 
 United States had in 1900 at least 28 associations for the 
 Protestant Missions of different denominations. 26 
 
 If to all this we add what the associations of Norway, 
 Germany, and other places received for the Lutheran mis- 
 sions, we reach a truly colossal figure for the total budget of 
 all the Protestant sects. The budget to the Protestant Foreign 
 Missions is very difficult to establish, for these Missions depend 
 upon a large number of societies whose data is almost im- 
 possible to centralize. It is conceded however, that it sur- 
 passes 100,000,000 perhaps 150,000,000 francs, a figure ten or 
 twelve times more than all the assistance granted to our 
 
 26. GUASCO, op. tit., p. 52, 1911. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 45 
 
 Catholic missionaries, incomparably more numerous and more 
 important. Only the devotion and the indefatigable charity of 
 our missionaries maintain the equilibrium, but one is cer- 
 tainly forced to admit that our generosity towards our foreign 
 missionaries is nothing in comparison to that of the Protes- 
 tants. The truth is that the Catholics, save in a few French 
 dioceses, give relatively little for their Foreign Missions ; that 
 the Missions are not sufficiently well known or appreciated; 
 that it would be fortunate to see the Propagation of the Faith 
 in particular established in all the dioceses of the world, for 
 which an official act of the Sovereign Pontiff is necessary. 
 
46 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OP THE SOCIETY 
 
 The earliest efforts for aiding the Foreign Missions by 
 means of prayer and alms have been described in a preced- 
 ing chapter. The Societe des Missions fitrangeres carried 
 on a campaign, restricted at the outset to the fostering of the 
 practice of offering those indulgenced prayers for the Mis- 
 sion which had fallen into desuetude since the Revolution, 
 and later, through its leaflets, emphasized the wisdom of the 
 idea of the English Methodists, who were in the habit of 
 contributing a penny a week for the support of their Missions. 
 We are not certain what methods were employed by Mme. 
 Petit in Lyons in collecting money and furnishings for the 
 Dioceses of Bardstown and New Orleans. The decimal system 
 so skilfully applied by Mile. Jaricot in organizing those who 
 contributed a cent-a-week, into groups of ten, into groups 
 of one hundred, and into groups of one thousand, with a 
 person at the head of each of these groups, was incorporated 
 into the Society for the Propagation of the Faith immediately 
 after its foundation in 1822. Thus the person at the head 
 of each group of ten received the contributions from all the 
 members in his group and remitted to the head of the group 
 of one hundred members the money he had received. This 
 head of the group of one hundred forwarded the funds he 
 received to the head of the group of a thousand members. 
 
 The meeting of May 3, 1822, provided a slightly different 
 form of organization by bringing together all the alms in the 
 hands of the Central Council. The Central Council of Lyons 
 was organized on the day of the foundation and it was soon 
 felt necessary to enlist the interest and cooperation of influ- 
 ential personages at Paris. In June, 1822, M. Didier Petit 
 went to Paris for the purpose of forming a Superior Council 
 of the Society. In a special meeting, at which were present 
 the Cardinal Prince de Croy, Grand Chaplain of France, 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 47 
 
 Abbe Perault, the Prince of Polignac, the Marquis de Riviere, 
 the Count de Senst-Pilsach, the Duke of Rohan and M. de 
 Haller, Didier Petit explained the end and the means of the 
 new institution. These gentlemen accepted the idea submitted 
 to them, promising to devote themselves to the Society. They 
 met on the 27th of the following July at the home of the 
 Grand Chaplain of France, at the chateau of the Tuileries, 
 and created the Central Council of the North, with the special 
 council for the Diocese of Paris. 1 This Superior Council 
 ceased to exist after the Revolution of 1830 ; the two Central 
 Councils of Lyons and of Paris agreed that there was no 
 longer need to reestablish it. 
 
 The Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide in a letter 
 of February 25, 1841, expresses its desire that the Superior 
 Council of the whole Society be reestablished with the inten- 
 tion of placing Cardinal De Bonald at its head. The reason 
 given for this was that the two Councils of Lyons and Paris 
 may not be in conflict ; that greater unity may be attained and 
 somewhat greater deference may be shown to Propaganda on 
 whom all Missions depend. Cardinal De Bonald was pre- 
 ferred not because he was Archbishop but because of his high 
 office as a Cardinal, and it was recalled that the former Presi- 
 dent of the Superior Council had been Cardinal Prince de 
 Croy, Grand Chaplain of France. Since the Society had 
 become universal, its control should be entrusted to a Car- 
 dinal of the Church. It appears also that there had been 
 some opposition made by the Council of Paris to the subsidies 
 for the Missions of Europe, and a certain amount of par- 
 simony was displayed notwithstanding the wishes of the Holy 
 See. 2 With the disappearance of the Superior Council at 
 Paris that part of the Rule which provided that the Superior 
 Council of the Association was to distribute the funds accord- 
 ing to the needs of the different Missions was no longer opera- 
 tive. Article 4 of the Revised Rules of 1834 provided that 
 
 1. GUASCO, op. tit., p. 25, 1911. 
 
 2. Propaganda transcripts, Documento XXXIII Ms, Lettera della 
 8. C., 'Vol. 325, Fol. 146v, Monsignor Garibaldi Nunzio Apostolico, 
 Parigi, 25 Febraro, 1841. 
 
48 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 the total of the subscriptions be placed in the hands of the 
 two cashiers residing one at Paris and one at Lyons. 8 A 
 provision for forwarding the alms from the members to the 
 Councils is made in Article 8 : ' ' The two Councils, in order 
 to facilitate their collections, conjointly with the Council to 
 which they are attached, will designate in each diocese a 
 subscriber who collects there the sums donated. ' ' 
 
 The present custom of collecting and assembling the con- 
 tributions is explained in a communication to me from M. 
 Guasco, the General Secretary, in which he states : * * In the ex- 
 tract of the rules of the Association for the Propagation of the 
 Faith the paragraph entitled Division of the Association 
 where there is question of divisions, of centuries, of sections 
 and of divisions, long ago fell into desuetude. There is no 
 longer a question today of any division except the groups 
 of ten. Today the chiefs of the groups of ten remit the 
 receipts into the hands of the Parish Director, who is the 
 Pastor or the Assistant delegated by the Pastor to look after 
 the Society." The promoter's duties are to organize a band 
 of ten to collect the offerings, and to circulate among them 
 the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, which is published 
 every two months. The offerings are then turned over by the 
 promoter to the parochial director, where the Society is estab- 
 lished in the parish. Otherwise they are sent to the General 
 Director. Membership certificates are provided to new mem- 
 bers, and cards record the collections. In some parishes of 
 the United States the Society has been connected with some 
 other Society already existing; in others, it has an organiza- 
 tion of its own; in those parishes where a branch of the 
 Society is not established, members may join by saying the 
 required prayers and forwarding their offerings to general 
 headquarters. Besides those who contribute only sixty cents 
 a year, there are two other classes : The special members are 
 those who contribute the sum of six dollars a year represent- 
 ing the amount collected in a band of ten, and life members 
 
 3. Cf. Chapter III, p. 30. 
 
 4. GUASCO, letter dated August 29, 1921. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 49 
 
 who contribute at one time a sum of money not less than 
 forty dollars to the Society. Both special members and life 
 members received a copy of the Annals every two months. 
 Sums of money intended by the donors for particular Mis- 
 sions or missionaries are received and sent at once to their 
 destination. 5 There is naturally a tendency to control their 
 distribution. 
 
 In the United States the Society is legally incorporated 
 and hence is empowered to receive bequests. Monsignor 
 Freri writes: ''The Propagation of the Faith, having lost 
 many bequests through the opposition of natural heirs, the 
 adverse decision of courts, the lack of care on the part of the 
 executors, has established a Conditional Gift Fund in America 
 to which several thousands of dollars have already been con- 
 tributed by persons who had intended to leave legacies for the 
 Missions. The Society receives gifts, large or small, at the 
 same time entering into a written agreement with the donor 
 not to spend these gifts but to invest them in well-determined 
 and absolutely safe securities, and to pay to the donors, so 
 long as they shall live, a yearly amount equivalent to a fair 
 rate of interest. After the donor's death the money is placed 
 in the general fund to be distributed among the Missions. 
 If the money left in care of the Propagation of the Faith is 
 intended for other purposes besides its own work, the Society 
 assumes the responsibility of seeing that the intentions of the 
 donors are implicitly followed and the various bequests dis- 
 tributed as directed. Mass intentions will be forwarded to 
 needy missionary priests immediately after the death of the 
 benefactor and acquitted at once, thus obviating the long 
 delays which necessarily accompany the execution of a will. ' ' 
 
 The present delegate, Right Rev. Joseph Freri, was ap- 
 pointed by the Cardinal Secretary of State in the year 1903. 
 The delegates preceding him were Fathers Magnien and 
 Granjon. They were appointed in the year 1897. 7 Father 
 Granjon was named Bishop of Tucson in Arizona in the year 
 
 5. FRERI, op. cit., in the Annals, vol. LXXXV, p. 52, 1922. 
 
 6. Ut supra. 
 
 7. Ut supra. 
 
50 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 1900 and Father Freri was appointed assistant to Father 
 Magnien. Later, when Father Magnien died; Father Freri 
 was appointed sole delegate. In 1889, Fathers Terrien and 
 Gallien were given the mission to organize the Society in 
 America. They did much to promote the Society also in 
 Mexico. The National delegates of the Society transmit the 
 total collections to the Central Councils in Lyons and in Paris. 
 The Society is not incorporated in France and hence, theoret- 
 ically, there is no such Society in the eyes of the French 
 Government ; but in practice this government is quite friendly 
 to the Society and even during the darkest day of the past 
 war did not prevent the Society from distributing its regular 
 allocations. 8 
 
 Before speaking of the procedure of these two bodies it 
 would be well to give a list of the men who have presided 
 over them since the foundation of the Society. The President 
 of the Central Council of Lyons at the time of the foundation 
 was M. de Verna. A complete list of the Presidents is as 
 follows : 
 
 DE VERNA, Victor, President from May 3, 1822, to June 17, 
 1841. 
 
 DE JESSE, Antoine, President from June 17, 1841, to Decem- 
 ber 16, 1854. 
 
 TERRET, Andre, President from December, 1854, to July 16, 
 1859. 
 
 DE PRANDIERES, Louis Martial, President from June 26, 1859, 
 to July 17, 1868. 
 
 DES GARETS, Francisque, born 18^7, President from Decem- 
 ber 3, 1868, to November 25, 1898. 
 
 DE PRANDIERES, Martial, President from December 2, 1898, to 
 May 31, 1906. 
 
 TERRET, Joseph, President from June 3, 1906, to December 
 7, 1906. 
 
 8. The stringent French laws governing associations make it impos- 
 sible to have this Society incorporated. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 51 
 
 SAINT-OLIVE, Henri, President from December 7, 1906, to 
 
 October 27, 1920. 
 BECHETOILLE, Emmanuel (Mgr.) V. G., Lyons, President from 
 
 October 27, 1920. 
 
 The Count des Garets who was President of the Council 
 for thirty years and formed part of it during forty years, 
 had handed in his resignation at the end of the year 1898 
 on account of his advanced age. The unanimous vote of his 
 colleagues bestowed upon him the title of honorary president 
 and retained him in the Council. He died on February 28, 
 1900, at the age of 93 years. 
 
 The first President of the Central Council of Paris was 
 the Count de Sanst-Pilsach. The list of all the Presidents 
 of this Council is : 
 
 DE SENST-PILSACH, Count, President from 1822 to 1826 
 
 DE BERTIER, Count Ferdinand, " " 1826 to 1833 
 
 ABBE MATHIEU, " " 1833 to 1833 
 
 ABBE SALANDRE, " " 1833 to 1839 
 
 DE LA BOUILLERIE, Alphonse, " " 1839 to 1847 
 
 BERARD DES GLAJEUX, " " 1847 to 1865 
 
 GAUDRY, " " 1865 to 1873 
 
 COLIN DE VERDIERE, Leon " " 1873 to 1885 
 
 HAMEL, Charles " " 1885 to 1916 
 
 DELAZAILLE, " " 1916 to 1920 
 
 ODELIN, Mgr. H., V. G., Paris " " Oct. 1920 
 
 Father Mathieu became Bishop of Langres, and later 
 Cardinal Archbishop of Besanc.on. M. A. Guasco, born in 
 1854, has been General Secretary of the Central Council of 
 the Oeuvre de la Propagation at Paris since August, 1883. 9 
 
 The names of the present members of the two Central 
 Councils are not given in any of the Society's publications. 
 
 The two Central Councils are the administrators of the 
 Society. These Councils do not in any way interfere with the 
 
 9. These lists of Presidents were compiled by M. Groffier, General 
 Secretary of the Central Council of Lyons, Cf. GUASCO, op. cit., p. 39. 
 
52 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 interior administration of the Missions, their function being 
 limited to centralizing the offerings which pass successively 
 before arriving in their hands through the chiefs of ten to 
 the parish directors and from these latter to the directors 
 of the diocesan committees. When, at the end of Janu- 
 ary, the yearly offerings from the entire world have been 
 collected, and the accounts have been closed, then commences 
 for the two Central Councils the work of the distribution of 
 the total. The Society does not deal in investments and has 
 no permanent fund. To its great credit it can be said that 
 with conscientious attention and with impartiality all the 
 reports of the chiefs of the Missions, prefects and vicars- 
 apostolic, are read, compared and studied. The information 
 concerning the Missions which the Councils procure from the 
 reports which the missionary bishops address to them each 
 year, permit them to apportion, in the most equitable manner 
 and with a perfect knowledge of the needs of each Mission, 
 all these gifts and alms from whatsoever source. The Central 
 Council of Lyons takes the initiative in dividing the budget. 
 The Council of Paris, in its turn, resumes the task arid with the 
 same solicitude, approves, modifies, increases and diminishes 
 the allocations. It is only when the two Councils are entirely 
 in accord and after the consideration of the desires of the 
 Pope and the data submitted by the Congregation de Propa- 
 ganda Fide, that the assistance decided upon is sent to each 
 Mission. The result is indicated in detail in the Annales of 
 November in a statement published in nearly 375,000 copies. 10 
 These allotments are made in accordance with the extent and 
 the necessities of each Mission concerning the special gifts 
 destined for a certain missionary or a certain unforeseen need 
 of a given Mission, the Councils accept them with' courtesy 
 and transmit them with fidelity. ' * The distribution of funds, ' ' 
 writes Monsignor Freri, "is made at regular intervals by the 
 Councils, upon the comparative examination of the petitions 
 of the chiefs of Missions received every year. The division 
 
 10. Organisation de I'Oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, in the 
 Annexes, t. LXXXII, pp. 7-10. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 53 
 
 is made by the common consent of the two Councils, and once 
 the list of allocations has been decided upon, it is sent to the 
 Sacred Congregation of Propaganda for revision, adjustment 
 and approbation. When it is returned from Rome, payments 
 are made." 
 
 At the monthly meetings, which are private, at which the 
 " repartition" is to be made each director is provided with a 
 small booklet on the first page of which is entered the year 
 and the amount which had been distributed the previous year 
 and the amount which is to be distributed in the present year 
 and the difference between the two. The director's name is 
 also inscribed on this page. Then follow in order, the names 
 of all the Missions assisted by the Society, grouped under the 
 headings of the five continents : Europe, Asia, Africa, 
 America and Oceania. Then follows one chapter in which 
 the names of the Grand Congregations devoted to the Mis- 
 sions are arranged. Opposite the name of each Mission is 
 found six blank columns in which are to be inscribed the 
 first, second and third decisions of both councils should these 
 be found necessary. In the seventh column the allocation of 
 the preceding year is inscribed in red and a space is reserved 
 for the observations which the director may care to make. 
 The last page of this booklet contains a recapitulation showing 
 the total sum to be distributed according to the first, second 
 arid third decisions of the two councils for each of the five 
 continents and the Grand Congregations and the grand total. 
 Beside these figures are entered in red the corresponding totals 
 for the preceding year. 12 
 
 In spite of all this elaborate mechanism, the truth must 
 be confessed that the greatest confusion reigns in the minds 
 of the clergy and laity throughout the world on the methods 
 used by the Society. The existence of two independent bodies, 
 equally potent, and in some mysterious way equally subordin- 
 ate to an unseen center, is bound to create confusion. Whether 
 
 11. FRERI, op. cit., in the Annals, vol. LXXXV, p. 55, 1922. 
 
 12. Cf. Appendix of this work wherein a Repartition cahier has 
 been reproduced. 
 
54 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Paris is subordinate to Lyons, Lyons to Paris, or whether the 
 world is divided arbitrarily between the two Central Councils ; 
 or whether one can consider the Sacred Congregation de 
 Propaganda Fide as the overruling director of the two Coun- 
 cils are questions that no amount of research has cleared up. 
 As we shall see, later, this confusion of authority objectively, 
 at least, has done harm to the Society in such business-like 
 countries as England and America. Moreover, the Rule is 
 antiquated and has fallen into disuse. No new Rule has been 
 made since 1834, and this Rule antedates the present system 
 of organization. As Freri has said: 
 
 It is quite natural that an institution one hundred years old 
 should be in need of some changes and reforms and we know that the 
 Holy See has been contemplating them for some time. The * Osservatore 
 Romano' (the official organ of the Vatican) published on January 18, 
 1921, an article on the 'Propagation of the Faith' in which it was 
 stated that the authorities of the Church had decided to transfer to 
 Rome the Councils of Lyons-Paris and place them under the jurisdiction 
 of the S. C. of Propaganda and the direction of an international 
 committee. This will probably lead to a reorganization of the Society, 
 but at this writing we have no knowledge as to the lines on which it 
 will be made. 18 
 
 Secrecy prevails over everything, and at Paris even the 
 names of the members of the Councils were refused me. 
 
 Many Catholics, therefore, even among those whose social 
 position and religious sentiments place them at the head of 
 works of Catholic benevolence are ignorant as well of the 
 organization as of the mode of operation of the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Faith. This ignorance is due, in large 
 part, to the traditions of the Central Councils' Directors, 
 who have always concealed their labors under the veil of 
 anonymity. The two Councils are self -recruiting and the func- 
 tions of their members are entirely gratuitous. They are 
 composed of ecclesiastics and laymen commendable by their 
 social positions, the functions which they perform, their ex- 
 perience in business, their talent and their piety. 14 Since 
 
 13. FUERI, op. cit., in the Annals, vol. LXXXV, p. 14, 1922. 
 
 14. Organisation dc I'Ocuvrc, etc. in the Annalcs, t. LXXXII, p. 7. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 55 
 
 laymen were in the majority at the foundation meeting of 
 the Society in 1822, the administration has remained almost 
 entirely in their hands. Hence only a few priests have taken 
 an active part in its deliberations. 18 
 
 Recently, however, the Holy See expressed the desire to 
 have ecclesiastics placed at the head of the two Councils, and 
 as a result of this Mgr. Beehetoille, Vicar-General of the 
 Diocese of Lyons, has been named President of the Central 
 Council of Lyons, and Mgr. Odelin, Vicar-General of the 
 Diocese of Paris, has been named to head the Central Council 
 of Paris. Another recent innovation in the government of 
 the Society was introduced by Pope Benedict XV when he 
 created a Central Council at Rome, which he placed under 
 the direct dependence of the Sacred Congregation cle Propa- 
 ganda Fide for all the dioceses of Italy and charged to pro- 
 cure a greater development of the Society in that country. 10 
 Just what will be the relations between this Council and those 
 of Lyons and of Paris remains to be seen. It is problematical 
 whether an international Council 'will be created at Rome or 
 elsewhere and whether the ancient French Councils will be- 
 come simple intermediaries between the faithful and this 
 international Council or whether the former will conserve 
 their present character. There is also a possibility that the 
 Congregation of Propaganda may take over the effective direc- 
 tion of the Society." 
 
 For the purposes of daily correspondence the two Central 
 Councils have in some unknown way divided the Missions 
 of the world between them. The dioceses and Missions in 
 America have been under the jurisdiction of the Paris 
 
 15. FRERI, op. cit., p. 14, 1912. 
 
 16. Osscrvatore Komano, January 21, 1921. 
 
 17. GUASOO, L'Ocuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, Un Siccle 
 d'Histvire, in the Correspondant, t. 284, September 25, 1921; Cf. 
 FRERI, op. tit., in the Annals, vol. LXXXV, p. 55, 1922: "The 
 Osservatore Romano . . . stated that the authorities of the Church 
 had decided to transfer to Rome the Councils of Lyons and Paris and 
 place them under the jurisdiction of the S. C. of Propaganda and the 
 direction of an international committee. This will probably lead to a 
 reorganization of the Society but at this writing we have no knowledge 
 as to the lines on which it will be made." 
 
56 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Council. The Missions of the various religious orders have 
 been somewhat arbitrarily divided between the two councils. 
 The money contributed to the Society is sent by each dele- 
 gate or by a diocesan director to the Central Council of Lyons 
 or of Paris by means of bank drafts and it is distributed to 
 the Mission fields by the same means. At times the insistence 
 by the Central Councils that all mass stipends, particular 
 gifts, as well as collections which are later to be distributed 
 to the Missions of the same country in which they were do- 
 nated, conform to this set method has resulted in certain 
 delays and in losses incurred by the transfer and retrans- 
 fer of these funds. 
 
 There is no doubt that as early as 1840, and earlier, the 
 American bishops were not altogether pleased with the cum- 
 bersome methods of the Society. In that year we find Father 
 Hercule Brassac submitting to the American hierarchy a pros- 
 pectus for a general Agency to be established in Paris for the 
 transactions of all ecclesiastical affairs with the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Faith. This prospectus was as follows : 
 
 The need of an Ecclesiastical Agency established in Paris and 
 devoted entirely to the interests of the episcopate and the clergy of the 
 United States has been felt for a long time and yet an establishment 
 of this kind is still wanting. 
 
 The undersigned, after having consulted persons of experience, has 
 decided to attempt the enterprise, provided that his plan obtains the 
 approval and encouragement of the archbishops and bishops of the 
 United States, as it has already received it from Bishops Rosati, Portier 
 and Miles. Here is what he has the honor of proposing: 
 
 I. The undersigned will act as representative before the Council 
 of the Association for the Propagation of the Faith for the Right 
 Reverend American prelates, who will thus authorize him for the pur- 
 pose, to explain the needs of the dioceses, to defend their interests, to 
 solicit assistance, to receive the sums allowed and send them to their 
 destination by the surest means and with the shortest delay. 
 
 Nearly all the different Missions of the world have with the 
 Association a representative in the Superiors of the Seminary of the 
 Foreign Missions, of the Lazarists, the Jesuits, and the House of Picpus, 
 etc. Those of the United States are almost the only ones which are not 
 officially represented and from this may come the difference in the 
 allocations. In as much as the directors of the Association have no 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 57 
 
 other information about the missions than the letters of the Bishops, 
 which are often read a long time before the sessions where the allowances 
 are made, the demand made and the considerations to support them 
 are likely to be forgotten, while a few remarks made verbally at that 
 very moment might exert a very happy influence. 
 
 The funds allowed to the dioceses of the United States often remain 
 a considerable time in the treasury of the Association. The time neces- 
 sary to notify the interested parties of these allocations, the sending 
 thereof or possibly the negotiation as to the manner and terms of 
 payments which often follow long after the time when the matter has 
 been presented, cause delays that could to a great extent be avoided by 
 the proposed Agency. 
 
 II. Priests in Europe often obtain from their bishops an exeat 
 gladly given in order to get rid of them; they arrive in America and 
 the Ordinaries of the place where they present themselves for the 
 missions, have no means of assuring themselves at once of their past 
 conduct and their capabilities. Others again, led undoubtedly by good 
 motives, but having had none to judge their vocations other than persons 
 ignorant of the customs and ways of the United States, find themselves 
 disappointed and unable to do much good. The undersigned will take 
 it upon himself to obtain all possible information about the candidates 
 who present themselves for America. He will try to learn of their 
 character, their talents and their aptitude. As he knows a great 
 number of the Dioceses of France, Belgium and even Germany and Italy, 
 and as he moreover exercised the holy ministry in the United States 
 for nearly twenty years, he would be better able than many others to 
 judge, with less chances of being mistaken, those who would be fitted 
 for this kind of a mission. He could also provide for their embar- 
 kation according to the orders of the bishops. 
 
 III. In compliance with the wishes of prelates to obtain the estab- 
 lishment of religious orders of women, the undersigned will attempt to 
 procure them and to attend to everything necessary for their voyage. 
 
 IV. The undersigned would also take care of the buying of books, 
 ornaments, sacred vessels, paintings, engravings and lithographs and 
 church furniture, also subscriptions to papers and magazines, and in 
 general, of everything that would be recommended to him. He would 
 give his personal attention to these matters, profiting by the assistance 
 of merchants and manufacturers; he would spare no pains in obtaining 
 the most advantageous terms at all times. 
 
 V. The undersigned promises to the archbishops and bishops that 
 he will justify their confidence by constant zeal and absolute discretion 
 in the matters entrusted to him. 
 
 VI. The undersigned would ask of each of the bishops and arch- 
 bishops who would honor him with their confidence the sum of $50.00 
 
58 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 (250 francs) as compensation for his services and would pledge himself 
 not to charge any further commissions for the business he would have 
 to do; at least where he would not himself be obliged to pay interest 
 in procuring the drafts for the transmission of moneys. 
 
 VII. In cases where the undersigned would be obliged to advance 
 moneys, he would charge at the rate of 5 per cent interest annually and 
 1 per cent commission on the sum advanced. 
 
 VIII. The undersigned will also charge himself to fill the orders 
 given him by colleges, convents, religious institutions and the clergy 
 at large for a reasonable commission according to the importance of the 
 demand; but those orders must be sent to him through the hands of the 
 bishops, or otherwise the money must be sent in advance by draft or 
 otherwise. 
 
 IX. The undersigned will give to the archbishops and bishops who 
 desire it, a guarantee for the faithful administration of their funds. 
 
 The undersigned feels it his duty to impress upon the archbishops 
 and bishops of the United States that his enterprise is not a money 
 speculation, but simply a work which he believes to be most advan- 
 tageous for the country that he considers as a second Fatherland. 
 
 Bishops Rosati, Portier and Miles have authorized the undersigned 
 to make known to their venerable brothers of the United States the 
 approbation and encouragement which they have given to his project, 
 and to give their names as his reference. He takes the liberty to add 
 the names of Bishop Purcell of Cincinnati, of Mr. Jeanjean of New 
 Orleans, of Madame Gallitzin, Superioress of the Sacred Heart of the 
 United States. The agency will open on January 1, 1841. 
 
 Correspondence with the undersigned may be in French or in 
 English. The following form signed and sealed will be a sufficient 
 proxy to authorize the undersigned to act with full power. "I, the 
 undersigned, Archbishop (or Bishop) of N. N. in the United States 
 of America, recognize and authorize Monsieur 1'Abbe Brassac, formerly 
 missionary in America, as my agent with the Association for the Propa- 
 gation of the Faith established in Europe, and I ask all persons whom 
 it may concern to honor him in this quality with their confidence." 
 
 I have the honor to remain, most respectfully of Your Grace, the 
 most humble and devoted servant. 
 
 H. Brassac, 
 
 V. G. of Cincinnati and Nashville 
 
 Paris, f 
 
 Eue Cassette 28. 
 
 P. S. There will always be with this agent an apartment for the 
 Archbishops and Bishops during their stay at Paris. 18 
 
 18. MESSMER, The Eev. Hercule Brassac, European Vicar-Gen- 
 eral of the American Bishops, 1839-1861, in the Catholic Historical 
 Review, vol. Ill, pp. 413-415. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 59 
 
 How many bishops joined this Agence, it is impossible to 
 state. 
 
 The main item in the operating expenses of the Society 
 is that for the printing, publishing and distributing the 
 Annalcs. The other publications of the Society are sold for 
 a modest price which generally covers their expense and at 
 times leaves a small surplus which is also devoted to the Mis- 
 sions. The salaries o the employees, as well as rent, taxes, 
 heat, light and insurance, and the expenses of correspondence 
 constitute the other chief items of expense. 
 
 The receipts of the Association for the year 1842 amounted to 
 3,233,486 fr. which is upwards of $600,000. The Missions of the 
 United States received of this sum, $126,000. The whole sum distributed 
 throughout the world is about $550,000. The expenses of the admin- 
 istration which include those incurred not only in France, but in other 
 countries, are composed of the salaries of persons employed, postage of 
 letters in the correspondence which is kept up, as well as the various 
 dioceses of Europe, as with the missions of the whole world, rent, 
 stationery, etc., and amount to about $6,500. The Society publishes, 
 every two months, a pamphlet containing intelligence of the different 
 missions, consisting principally of letters from clergymen who are 
 stationed in those various points. These pamphlets are called Annals 
 of tlw Association, &c., and the printing of them amounts annually to 
 $45,000. One hundred and fifty thousand copies of the Annals are now 
 printed; namely 77,000 French; 21,000 German; 15,000 English; 2,000 
 Spanish; for South America; 3,500 Flemish; 28,000 Italian; 2,000 
 Portugese; and 1,500 Dutch; this number published six times a year, 
 gives a total of nine hundred thousand copies. The number published 
 in the course of the last year has been somewhat less, on the average, 
 than this; but there must be added besides, the printing of the Glance, 
 Prospectus, collector's sheet, &c., in all languages as well as the re- 
 printing of several of the old numbers. In the expenses of publication 
 must be also included paper, printing, stitching of the numbers, 
 editing, translating into foreign languages, &c. 1D 
 
 One of the traditional methods of keeping the attention, 
 the interest and the zeal of the faithful alive to the missionary 
 work in which the Society is engaged has been the annual dis- 
 course delivered by one of the foremost pulpit orators of 
 
 19. Association for the Propagation of the Faith in the United 
 States Catholic Magazine, Vol. Ill, pp. 124-128. Baltimore, 1844. 
 
60 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 France on the subject of the Propagation of the Faith. This 
 discourse generally took place on the third of May or the 
 third of December, the two principal feast days of the Society, 
 in the primatial church of Lyons in the presence of the Arch- 
 bishop. Among the most prominent of these orators has been 
 Father Monsabre, O. P., Father Didon, 0. P., Mgr. Touchet, 
 Bishop of Orleans, Father Janvier, O. P., and Mgr. Le Roy. 
 They have all been printed and are 011 sale in Lyons for 
 about ten cents apiece, the whole collection amounting to 
 about two dollars. 
 
 At an early date the public character of the Society which 
 had been assured by the rescript of Pius VII in 1823 which 
 was its canonical institution and the progress which it made 
 each day prevailed upon the Superior Council of the Associa- 
 tion at Paris to give its publicity all the extension necessary 
 for the national development of the work. There remains, 
 however, in the administration of the Society the two defects : 
 an absence of hierarchical organization between the Councils, 
 and the prevalance of secrecy in the meetings, monthly and 
 annual. For the latter, the French attitude towards such 
 activity as that embraced by the Society must be understood ; 
 for the combination of patriotism and religious zeal has never 
 been broken since the proud old clays when the Gesta Dei 
 per Francos was the boast of the people of France. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 61 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND LAY COOPERATION 
 
 In the year 1817 the Holy See gave its approbation to the 
 Association of Prayers which was being reestablished by the 
 Seminaire des Mission-fitrangeres of Paris and enriched it 
 with certain indulgences. 1 After the foundation of the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Faith it was necessary to obtain 
 ecclesiastical approbation ; hence in the beginning of the year 
 1823, M. de Villiers, a member of the Central Council of Lyons, 
 went to Rome and was received by the Sovereign Pontiff, 
 Pius VII, in private audience. 2 In this audience, of March 
 5, 1823, the Association for the Propagation of the Faith 
 requested the Holy Father to grant to each of its members 
 certain indulgences applicable to the souls in Purgatory. 8 
 In an audience granted to the Cardinal Secretary of State on 
 March 15, 1823, Pius VII accorded to the Association the 
 indulgences asked. 4 Pius VII died in 1823 and was succeeded 
 by Pope Leo XII. Shortly after his elevation to the Papacy, 
 the Central Council of Lyons, through the agency of one of 
 its members, rendered its homage to the Pope ; and on May 
 11, 1824, Leo XII granted to those Associates of the Society, 
 who were infirm, the privilege of gaining the indulgences 
 granted by his predecessor without the obligation of visiting 
 the parish church. 8 Nor was Pius VIII forgetful of the 
 
 1. Cf. LAUNAY, op. cit., t. II, pp. 500, et seq.; Cf. Note 7, at the 
 end of Chapter II of this work. 
 
 2. Association de la Propagation de la Foi, in the Annales, t. I, 
 fasc. iii, pp. 6-7. 
 
 3. Ut supra, pp. 6-8; Cf. Propaganda Transcripts, Documento I, 
 L'Associazione delta Propagazionc delta Fcde domanda I'approvazione 
 a S. S. Pio VII, Roma, 5 Mars, 1823. 
 
 4. Ut supra, pp. 9-11 ; Cf . ibid. Documento II, Sua Santita Pio 
 VII nell 'Udienza concessa at Card. Segretario di Stato, il 15 marzo 
 1823 accorda all'Associazionc I'approvazione delle grazie domandate. 
 
 5. Annales, t. I, fasc. v, pp. 8-10; Extrait du Eeglcment de I' Asso- 
 ciation de la Propagation de la Foi, in the Annales, t. I, fasc. vi, p. 96; 
 Propaganda Transcripts, Documento IV, Leone XII accorda agli 
 associati infermi della pia Opera di poter lucrare le indulgenze con- 
 
62 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Society. The rescript of September 18, 1829, granted to the 
 associates the privilege of gaming the indulgences by visiting 
 any church whatsoever instead of the parish church or the 
 oratory of the Association. Gregory XVI, who had been 
 prefect of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, 
 bestowed special benevolence upon the Society which had be- 
 come such a powerful auxiliary of this important Roman 
 Congregation. In a rescript dated September 25, 1831, he 
 granted to those Associates, who are not French, the privilege 
 of belonging to the Association and of gaining the indulgences 
 accorded to the same. 7 These privileges were extended in per- 
 petuity to those Associates outside of France. Moreover, on 
 November 15, 1835, Gregory XVI, granted that the indul- 
 gences accorded to the members of the Society on the Feast 
 of the Finding of the Holy Cross and on that of St. Francis 
 Xavier might be gained either on their octave or on the day 
 fixed for the celebration of the feast by the Ordinary. 8 On 
 July 22, 1836, he also granted a plenary indulgence on Feasts 
 of the Annunciation and Assumption. 9 Gregory XVI, issued 
 on March 22, 1839, a brief whereby the Feast of the Martyr 
 Esuperius was to be instituted in the metropolis of Lyons and 
 whereby divers indulgences are accorded to the Associates of 
 
 cesse dal suo predeccssore, scnsa I'obbligo di visitare la chiesa par- 
 rocchiale. Die undecima maii, 1824. 
 
 6. Annales, t. IV, p. 259; ibid., t. VIII, p. 408; Propaganda 
 Transcripts, Docwnento VII, Pio VIII a-coorda ai fedeli associati in- 
 fermi di poter visitare una chiesa parrocchiale o oratorio dell'Asso- 
 ciazione. (18 Settembre, 1829) Eome. 
 
 7. Annales, t. V, p. 294; Propaganda Transcripts, Documento IX: 
 25 Settembre, 1831. II Sommo Pontcfice Gregorio XVI, su domanda del 
 Presidents dell'Associasione della Prop, della Fede di Lione, concede 
 ai nan Francesi di poter far parte dell'Associasione, e di lucrare le 
 indulgence accordate alia medesima. 
 
 8. Annales, t. VIII, p. 407; Propaganda Transcripts, Documento 
 XVI: Gregorio XVI concede ohe le indulgence agli ascritti della pia 
 Opera per le feste dell'Invensione e 8. Francesco si possano lucrare o 
 nella loro ottavo, o il giorno in cui la fcsta, e fissata dal proprio Or- 
 dinario. 15 Novembris, 1835. 
 
 9. Annales, t. IX, p. 112; Propaganda Transcripts, Documento 
 XXVI, Gregorio XVI concede agli ascritti della Pia, Opera di poter 
 lucrare I'indulgenza plenaria, applicabile ai defunti, nei giorni dell'An- 
 nunziata e dell'Assunta. Die 22 Julii, 1836. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith ' 63 
 
 the pious Society for the Propagation of the Faith. 10 In his 
 Encyclical of August 13, 1840, Gregory XVI recommended 
 the pious Society to all the patriarchs, archbishops and 
 bishops, of the whole Catholic world. The opening words from 
 the Encyclical, which we have already cited, are : 
 
 Probe nostis, Venerabiles Fratres, quantis undique calaraitatibus 
 tristissimo hoc tempore urgeatur et quam miserandum in modum 
 Catholica vexetur Ecclesia: nee ignoratis quanta omnis generis errorum 
 colluvione, effrenataque errorum audacia Religio Sancta oppugnetur, et 
 quali astutia quibusque fraudibus haeretici, atque increduli homines 
 connitantur fidelium corda mentesque pervertere. Nostis uno verbo, 
 nullum prope esse laboris ac moliminum genus, quod ad inconcussum 
 Sanctae Civitatis aedificium ex iuris, si fieri posset, sedibus evellendum 
 non insumatur. . . . Quid denique, nisi magna cum laude dicendum, 
 de celebri ilia societate quae non solum in catholicis regionibus, sed 
 etiam in Catholicorum et infidelium terris, nova semper obtinet incre- 
 menta; quaeque fidelibus omnibus euiuscumque conditionis facilem 
 viam modumque aperit, ut de apostolicis missionibus bene mereantur, 
 ac de spiritualibus illarum bonis participes et ipsi fiant? lam intel- 
 ligitis, sermonem hie esse de notissima societate sub titulo Propagationis 
 Fidei. Communicatis modo vobiscum, Venerabiles Fratres, et angoribus, 
 quibus ab iacturas conficimur, et consolationibus quibus sustentamur ob 
 catholicae Beligionis triumphos, restat nunc ut pariter vobis com- 
 municemus sollicitudinem quae Nos urget pro maiori Societatum tarn 
 bene in Religione merentium prosperitate. 11 
 
 His successor, Pius IX, in a rescript dated October 17, 
 1847, freely confirmed the spiritual graces granted to the 
 Society by his predecessors. 12 On May 2, 1850, Pius IX, 
 thanked the Councils of Lyons and Paris for the congratula- 
 tions extended to him on the occasion of his return to Rome. 13 
 
 10. Annales, t. XI, pp. 168-182; ibid., pp. 459-462: Propaganda 
 Transcripts, Documento XXXI; Breve col quale s'istituisce la festa 
 del ma-rtire S. Esuperio nclla metropoli di Lione e si aooordamo diverse 
 indulgence agli associati della pia Opera della Fede. Roma, 22 marzo, 
 1839. Gregorius PP. XVI, ad perpetuam rei memoriam. 
 
 11. Annales, t. XII, pp. 603-615; Propaganda Transcripts, Docu- 
 mento XXXIII, Enciclica con la quale Gregorio XVI, raccomanda 
 I'Opera a tutto I'Orbe cattolico. 13 Agosto, 1840. " Probe nostis." 
 
 12. Annales, t. XXII, p. 320; Propaganda Transcripts, Dooumento 
 XXXVII, Pio IX conferma ampiamcnte alia Pia Opera le grazie spir- 
 ituali accordate dai suoi predecessori. Die 17 Octobris, 1847. 
 
 13. Annales, t. XXII, no. 328 bis, pp. i-viii ; Propaganda Trans- 
 scripts, Documento XLVII; Pio IX ringrizia i Consigli di Lione e 
 Parigi per le congratulaeione inviategli in occasione de suo ritorno a 
 Boma. 22 Maii, 1850. 
 
64 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 His rescript of August 5, 1851, decreed that the spiritual 
 graces conceded by his predecessors might be gained by the 
 members regardless of the sum contributed by them each 
 month. 14 In the brief of December 31, 1853, Pius IX, ac- 
 corded to the priests who are the collectors of the hundred 
 groups of ten the favor of a privileged altar five times a 
 week. 15 The rescript of April 17, 1855, accords to the children 
 who are members of the pious work and who have not yet 
 made their First Communion the privilege of gaining the in- 
 dulgences by simply going to confession. 10 New indulgences 
 were accorded in the rescript of March 7, 1862." The rescript 
 of January 26, 1865, granted to priests who each year collected 
 (or themselves give 260 lire or who are members of a com- 
 mittee or council of the Society), the faculty of imparting to 
 rosaries the indulgence of St. Bridget, the ordinary indul- 
 gence for crosses and medals, and the plenary indulgence and 
 papal benediction in the hour of death. 18 On December 31, 
 1871, his rescript conceded other privileges to priests who are 
 either collectors for the Society, are zealous in its behalf, or 
 who are members of it. 19 On June 5, 1872, another rescript 
 
 14. Annales, t. XXIV, pp. 81-88; Propaganda Transcripts, Docu- 
 mento XLVIII, Pio IX stabilises che le graeie spirituals conoesse dai 
 suoi predecessori si possono' lucrare dagli ascritti qualnnque sia la 
 somma da essi mensilmente elargita. Die 5 August!, 1851. 
 
 15. Annales, t. XXVI, pp. 325-326; Propaganda Transcripts, Docu- 
 mento L, Pio IX accorda ai sacerdoti ascritti alia Pia> Opera il favore 
 dell'altare privilegiato. Die 31 Decembris, 1853. 
 
 16. Annales, t. XXVII, pp. 256-257; Propaganda Transcripts, Docu- 
 mento LI, Pio IX acoorda ai fanciulli ascritti alia Pia Opera di poter 
 lucrare le indulgence con Vaccostarsi scmplicemente al sacramento della 
 confessione. 17 Aprile, 1855. 
 
 17. Annales, t. XXXV, pp. 5-7; LOUVET, op. cit., p. lla. 
 
 18. Annales, t. XXXVIII, p. 253; Propaganda Transcripts, Docu- 
 mento LII : Pio IX accorda ai sacerdoti che avranno raccolto ogni anno, 
 o dato del loro, la somma di L. 260, ovvcro che facciano parte di un 
 Consiglio o di un Comitato dell 'Opera, la facoltd di annettere o dare:" 
 alle coronc le indulgence dette di S. Brigida: alle croci e medaglie le 
 indulgence ordinaric; I'indulgenza plenaria e la benedisione papale in 
 articulo mortis. Die lanuarii, 1865. 
 
 19. Annales, t. XLIV, pp. 79-83; Propaganda Transcripts, Docu- 
 mento LIV, Pio IX concede altri privilege ai sacerdoti o collettori o 
 zelatori o ascritti alia Pia Opera. Die 31 Decembris, 1871. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 65 
 
 granted the concession of a plenary indulgence to the Asso- 
 ciates on the occasion of the Society's fiftieth anniversary. 20 
 
 The first rescript of Leo XIII, dated June 16, 1878, ampli- 
 fied the powers and faculties accorded to the priests who are 
 collectors of the Society. 21 His Encyclical Letter of December 
 3, 1880, Sancta Dei Civitas recommended to the bishops of 
 the Christian world the Institutes of the Propagation of the 
 Faith, of the Holy Childhood of Jesus Christ, and of the 
 Schools of the Orient. An extract from this memorable En- 
 cyclical follows: 
 
 Eminet autem inter ceteras pia consociatio ante annos fere sexa- 
 ginta Lugduni in Galliis coalita, quae a propagatione fidei nomen 
 accepit. Haec primum illuc spectavit ut quibusdam in America missioni- 
 bus opem ferret: mox tamquam granum sinapis in arborem ingentem 
 excrevit cuius rami late frondescunt, adeoque ad missioned omnes, quae 
 ubique terrarum sunt, actuosam beneficentiam porrigit. Praeclarum hoc 
 institutum celeriter Ecclesiae pastoribus probatum fuit et luculentis 
 laudam testimoniis honestatum. Komani illud Pontifices Pius VII, 
 Leo XII, Pius VIII, Decessores Nostri et commendarunt vehementer et 
 In dulgenti arum donis ditaverunt. Ac multo etiam studiosus fovit et 
 plane caritate paterna complexus est Gregorius XVI. . . . Eodem 
 tempore aemulatio pietatis effecit ut binae aliae societatis coalescerent 
 quarum altera a Sacra lesu Christi infantia altera a Scholis Orientis 
 nuncupata est. . . . Itaque cum tria sodalitis tarn certa Pontificum 
 Maximorum gratia floruerint, cumque opus singula suum studio con- 
 cordi urgere numquam desierint, uberes edidere salutis fructus, Con- 
 gregatione Nostri de Propaganda Fide haud mediocre attulere subsidium 
 et levamen ad sustinenda missionum onera, atque ita vigere visa sunt ut 
 laetam quoque spem facerent in posterum segetis amplioris. 22 
 
 On December 6, 1883, Leo XIII, expressed his appreciation 
 of Les Missions Catholiques. His rescript of May 25, 1885, 
 
 20. Annales, t. XLIV, pp. 315-317; Propaganda Transcripts, Docu- 
 mento LV : Pio IX ringrizia i Consigli di Lione e Parigi per i voti da 
 loro espressi in occasione dcll'SQmo genetliaco e del 50mo delta fon- 
 dazione delta pia Opera. 5 Giugno, 1872. 
 
 21. Annales, t. LI, p. 5. 
 
 22. Annales, t. LIII, p. 79; Propaganda Transcripts, Documento 
 LVI: Epistola Encyclica de institutis a propagatione Fidei a Sacra lesu 
 Christi infantia et a scholis orientis provehendis; Sancta Dei Ci/vitas. 
 Leo PP. XIII, Die III Decembris, 1880. 
 
 23. Annales, t. LVI, p. 63. 
 
66 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 accorded new indulgences to the Associates. 24 On August 4, 
 1889, Leo XIII, extended new indulgences to all priests who 
 are members of the Society or zealous in its behalf or who 
 have paid in whatever money has been collected by them. 20 
 Another Encyclical Letter of Leo XIII, in favor of the Society 
 was written on December 25, 1894, the Christi Nomen. We 
 translate the following passage of this letter: 
 
 For this reason we have never ceased to favor, to multiply the holy 
 missions which spread the lights of the Christian faith among the 
 people lost in the darkness and the Societies which sustain them by the 
 subsidies collected from the faithful. ... A Society which has 
 loaned to the missions of the entire world such an efficacious aid and 
 promises for the future still more abundant assistance. And with the 
 blessing of God our words obtained a happy result; the generosities of 
 the faithful respond to the urgent and zealous appeal of the 
 bishops and the well-meriting Society has made notable progress in 
 these latter years. But now more urgent needs lay claim to an increase 
 of zeal and generosity on the part of Catholics, and on your part, 
 Venerable Brothers, to all your intelligent activity. . . . With what 
 singular care, we are thinking of the Orient and of its illustrious and 
 venerable churches, Our Apostolic letters concerning the necessity of 
 conserving and of defending the discipline of the Orientals, have made 
 you understand it. ... But to the help from on high, human 
 means must be added and we must neglect nothing in what depends 
 on us to seek out and to indicate all the measures suitable for obtaining 
 the coveted result. 
 
 To bring back to the unique Church all those Orientals whatsoever, 
 which are separated from it, you see Venerable Brothers, there is need 
 at the outset of recruiting a numerous clergy from among themselves, 
 a clergy commendable by its doctrine and its piety, and capable of 
 inspiring in the others the desire of union; then, to multiply as far 
 as possible, these institutions in which the knowledge and discipline 
 shall be taught in bringing them into harmony with the particular 
 genius of the nation. It is also very opportune to open everywhere that 
 it will be advantageous, special houses for the education of the clerical 
 
 24. Annalcs, t. LVII, pp. 265, 345; Propaganda Transcripts, Doou- 
 mento LVII I: Leone XIII concede altre indulgence agli ascritti, Die 
 24 Maii, 1885. 
 
 25. Annalcs, LXI, p. 414; Propaganda Transcripts, Documcnto LIX: 
 Leone XIII estende a tutti i sacerdoti ascritti alia Pia Opera le indul- 
 gence accordate dai suoi predecessori ai sacerdoti membri di un Con- 
 siglio o zclatori, qualunque sia la somma da, essi racoolta, o vcrsata. 4 
 Augusti, 1889. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 67 
 
 youth, colleges in proportion to the importance of the population, in 
 order that each rite may be practised with dignity, and that the dif- 
 fusion of their best books initiate all the faithful into the knowledge 
 of their national religion. The realization of these and of other similar 
 projects, you readily understand will necessitate great expenses, and 
 you also understand that the Oriental Churches are unable to suffice by 
 themselves, for such numerous and such heavy charges, and it is not 
 possible for us, in the midst of these difficult times through which we 
 are passing, to contribute ourselves, in the measure we desire. It 
 remains for us therefore, to request, within the bounds of moderation, 
 the largest part of the subsidies necessary, from the Society whose 
 praise we have sounded, and whose object is in perfect conformity with 
 that which we have at heart. . . . It is just to also recommend the 
 similar and so useful Society of the Schools of tlw Orient, whose directors 
 are equally engaged in applying to the same object, the largest possible 
 portion of the alms which they collect. . . . Make then, every effort, 
 Venerable Brothers, in order that the Association for the Propagation 
 of the Faith make the largest possible development among you. 28 
 
 On December 12, 1903, Pius X in a brief filled with praise, 
 expressed his joy at seeing the periodical, Les Missions Catho- 
 liques, translated into various languages. 27 In a brief of 
 March 25, 1904, Pius X highly praised the Society and its 
 patron. A portion of this brief is as follows : 
 
 In the first rank, by its utility and its action, is placed this Society, 
 so worthy of sovereign praise, which has received the illustrious name 
 of The Propagaton of the Faith. It seems to have been born and 
 made its appearance in the midst of men by an inspiration wholly 
 divine; for it is in conformity with the plan of the Providence of God 
 that the faithful people of the Church who have not received the mission 
 of preaching the Gospel of Christ, nevertheless aid by their assistance 
 and subsidies, the heralds of the Gospel. That is why the love of 
 Christ the Eedeemer moved the hearts of excellent men, inspired them 
 
 26. Annales, t. LXVII, p. 84; Propaganda Transcripts, Docu- 
 mento LX: Enciclica di Leone XIII in favore delta Pia Opera. "Christi 
 Nomcn." Die XXV Decembris anno MDCCCXCIV. Pontifical Re- 
 script according indulgences to the priests who are collectors for the 
 Society is published in the Annales, t. LXVIII, p. 468. The response 
 of Leo XIII to the doubt submitted to him by the Sacred Congregation 
 of Indulgences is given in the Annales, t. LXXXI, p. 384. 
 
 27. Annales, t. LXXVI, fasc. 453, supplement; Missions Catholiqucs, 
 t. XXXV, pp. 613-614; Propaganda Transcripts, Documcnto LXI: Pio 
 X si rallegra con la Pia Opera per la pubblicazione del periodico Les> 
 Missions Catholiques, tradotte in parecchie lingue. Die XII Decembris, 
 MCMIII. 
 
68 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 to unite in an Association the faithful of all the peoples and of all the 
 nations; to have them contribute of their goods to the holy expeditions 
 of the missionaries; to come to the assistance of the dispensers of holy 
 things, in associating their prayer and thus to obtain the object of all 
 their desires the progress of the kingdom of God upon earth. Everyone 
 knows that such an association has grandly merited from the propagation 
 of the Christian faith. If the resources permit the envoys of the 
 Catholic doctrine to reach the most distant and the most barbarous 
 countries and to bring to them the benefits of our holy religion and of 
 our civilization, it is to the generosity of this noble Association that it 
 must be attributed. . . . Wherefore, in virtue of our Apostolic 
 authority and by the present letters solely for this motive we absolve 
 and declare absolved from all excommunication, suspension, interdict, 
 and other sentences, censures and ecclesiastical poena, if by chance they 
 have been incurred, all and each of them in favor of whom the said 
 letters are given; and in order, to the exterior support furnished to the 
 Association, may be equally added the protection and the grace from 
 on high we choose for it and give St. Francis Xavier as its Heavenly 
 Patron and we desire that to this Saint there be accorded all the 
 honors due to Heavenly Patrons; moreover, that the extension of his 
 culte and that an increase of liturgical honors may still more increase 
 his glory we elevate his Feast to the rite of a double-major, conformably 
 to the rubrics, for the universal church. And, doubtless, the generous 
 efforts of Catholics, even if they be isolated cases of individual 
 liberalities, contribute much to this result; but nothing would be more 
 profitable than the organization of groups of ten among the Catholics 
 according to the very wise rule; for the less cohesion the efforts have 
 the less is the effect produced, and on the contrary, united and pre- 
 scribed efforts are most powerful. To act individually, we say, is to do 
 well; but to act altogether is to do as one should. 28 
 
 On February 1, 1908, Pius X conceded other privileges 
 to priests who are members of the pious Society. 29 
 
 Benedict XV, in a brief of January 6, 1916, renewed the 
 benevolence of his predecessors towards the Society : 
 
 Truly with the blessing of God your solicitude and your zeal have 
 produced abundant fruits as the subscriptions attest which you have 
 obtained from the faithful and the enterprises of Apostolic labors which 
 
 28. Annalcs, t. LXXVI, fasc. 455, supplement; Propaganda Tran- 
 
 della ^ vera ' 
 
 . 
 
 29. Annales, t. LXXX, fasc. 478, supplement; Propaganda Tran- 
 scripts. Documento LX1V : Pio X concede privilcgi ai sacerdoti ascritti 
 alia pia Opera. Die I Februarii, MDCCCVIII 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 69 
 
 they have permitted to multiply, but alas at the very moment that we 
 would wish that the charity of Catholics become more generous for 
 this Society we have seen a distressing group of circumstances which 
 your piety rightly deplores for the same reason as ours, reduce at once 
 the number of sacred ministers and the subsidies which are necessary 
 for the missions of the Church. 80 
 
 On November 28, 1919, Benedict XV recommended the 
 Society in his Encyclical Maximum Illud* 1 Since the one 
 hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Faith occurs on May 3rd of this year 
 (1922), the Catholic worFd anticipates some new favors and 
 commendations from His Holiness, Pius XI. 
 
 Besides all these evidences of Papal sympathy and support, 
 hundreds of bishops throughout the world have raised their 
 voices in the favor of this Society and have called the atten- 
 tion of their clergy to it. One year after his acceptance of 
 the Presidency of the Superior Council, on August 18, 1823, 
 the Grand Chaplain of France, Mgr. de Croy wrote to all 
 the bishops of France to recommend the Society to them, 
 for it had already stood the test arid obtained the benediction 
 of Rome.* 2 The bishops hastened to promise their support to 
 the infant institution, formed committees and wrote pastoral 
 letters. From all parts there also arrived expressions of 
 thanks and testimonies of gratitude to a Society which had 
 already rendered such signal services and which was destined, 
 with the advance of years, to render still greater services. 
 The Cardinal Prince de Croy believed he ought to join his 
 felicitations to all those which were extended to the So4ety 
 and on the fifth of November, 1824, he wrote to M. de Verna, 
 President of the Central Council of Lyons : 
 
 Since I have had the honor to preside over the Association for the 
 Propagation of the Faith, you as well as the members of the Central 
 Council over which you preside have given me the proof of your zeal 
 for the success of this splendid work. It is with very sweet satisfaction 
 
 30. Annales, t. LXXXVIII, fasc. 525, supplement; Propaganda 
 Transcripts, Documento LXV : Benedetto XV rinnova alia pia Opera la 
 benevolenza dei suoi predecessor i. Die VI lanuarii, MCMXVI. 
 
 31. FRERI, op. cit., in the Annals, vol. LXXXV, p. 62, 1922. 
 
 32. Annales, t. I, fasc. iii, pp. 12-14; GUASCO, op. cit., p. 47. 
 
70 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 that I have seen both what true Christians can do and what they are 
 doing, animated like yourself by the desire of extending tne knowledge 
 of our holy religion and to concur in the salvation of souls. Kindly 
 accept, and make known to the members of the different Councils, and 
 to all those that are associated with us for this same end, the assurance 
 of how much I am touched by their generous efforts and by the success 
 with which God has deigned to crown these efforts in the Society of 
 France. 38 
 
 From a large number of bishops, who followed the example 
 of the Vicar of Christ, recommendations have been given in 
 favor of this Society. From the time of its foundation in 
 1822 until 1894, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 had been recommended to the faithful by 620 pastoral letters 
 which may be grouped as follows : France and Colonies, 297 
 pastorals ; Italy, 208 ; America, 42 ; Belgium, 12 ; England and 
 Ireland, 11 ; Germany, 11 ; Switzerland, 9 ; Asia, 3 ; Spain, 3 ; 
 Australia, 2. 34 
 
 The proposition in favor of the Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Faith presented to the Congregation of Eminent 
 and Reverend Fathers of the Vatican Council instituted to 
 receive the propositions of the Fathers, by the Most Reverend 
 Patriarchs, Archbishops and Bishops placed in charge of 
 the government of the Missions, in January, 1870, was the 
 most important episcopal endorsement the Society ever re- 
 ceived. A translation of it is therefore given in full : 
 
 Venerable Fathers: 
 
 Among the different pious societies which due to the approbation 
 of the Holy See and the favor of the bishops, sustain our missions by 
 the prayers and alms of the faithful, that which bears the name of 
 Society for the Propagation of the Faith undoubtedly ranks first. 
 
 It is from it indeed, that nearly all of us, without any exception of 
 nation or of person, receive the food and clothing, that with which the 
 Apostle St. Paul declares evangelic workers should be content; it is 
 by its help that the Catholic institutions are established and developed, 
 the Catholic institutions and the works of mercy which so eloquently 
 announce the Lord Jesus to the eyes of the peoples who know Him 
 not, and who are plunged in error; these works and these institutions 
 
 33. Annates, t. I, fasc. v, pp. 29-30; ibid., t. II, p. 55. 
 
 34. LOUVET, op. cit., p. lla. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 71 
 
 are so many striking signs by which we are recognized as the veritable 
 disciples of the true God, in spite of all indignity. 
 
 Profiting therefore by the happy and holy occasion which unites 
 us all, from the most distant regions of the world, at the feet of the 
 Supreme Pastor, we have the unanimous desire of manifesting the 
 immense gratitude which fills our hearts for this pious Society, the 
 nurse and almost the mother of all the missions. We have at heart to 
 recommend it to the venerable prelates who sit in the holy council and 
 particularly, to the chief of all the prelates and of all the church, to 
 the Sovereign Pontiff Pius IX, whose paternal benevolence we have 
 already so often experienced. 
 
 This paternal benevolence and your own, Venerable Fathers, appears 
 today to be much more necessary for the development of this Society 
 since now for many years, the alms it receives for the Propagation of 
 the Faith, instead of increasing as heretofore, remain stationary, or 
 even as has happened this year, run the risk of diminishing. 
 
 There results from this, on the one hand, that the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Faith, finds it impossible to suitably sustain all the 
 missions whose number has increased; while on the other hand, the 
 ministers in the regions committed to our care, lavish immense sums, 
 whose amount increases each year, to pervert souls, or rather to buy 
 them by a sacrilegious bargain. 
 
 An extreme danger menaces our missions and to avoid it, it is 
 necessary to inspire in the faithful, new ardor in order that recalling 
 their ancient energy, this grand society may always make new progress. 
 
 And we are confident that a single word from the Holy See and 
 the Ecumenical Council will produce a result which is so desirable and 
 so advantageous for the propagation of the Christian name in the whole 
 world. 
 
 Belying on these sacred motives, Venerable Fathers, we humbly 
 request that among the decrees relating to the Catholic missions which 
 must be presented to the holy Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, one bo 
 added by which the Church accords to the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Faith a solemn consecration and a new recommendation. 
 
 We cannot doubt that such a decision would be suitable to animate 
 the zeal of the so Catholic directors of this pious Society, and to inspire 
 in the faithful a sustained zeal in the places where it has seemed to 
 languish. 
 
 That is then, Venerable Fathers, the favor which we humbly ask 
 of you as well as of the Ecumenical Council, glorying in styling our- 
 selves. 
 
 Your very humble and very devoted servants and brothers, 
 
 (Then follow the signatures of one hundred and fifty-one mis- 
 sionary bishops.) 85 
 
 35. In the Annales, t. XLII, pp. 159-161. 
 
72 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 The bishops of the Catholic nations of the Old and the 
 New World have on several occasions given to the Society of 
 the Propagation of the Faith marks of their high sympathy 
 and generous cooperation by means of these pastoral letters 
 which they have issued, which, when they were received by 
 the Central Councils, had the effect of both a recompense and 
 an encouragement. 36 One might say that the bishops of all 
 the Sees of France have successively recommended the great 
 Society to the Faithful with high commendation. On the 
 occasion of the solemn Triduum celebrated at Lyons in honor 
 of the Blessed Perboyre and Chanel, their Eminences, the 
 Cardinals of Lyons and Paris, made an urgent appeal in 
 favor of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith. 87 At 
 the time of the appearance of the Encyclical Christi Nomen, 
 a large number of pastoral letters gave echo to the word of 
 the Venerable Chief of the Church. 38 The Annales have pub- 
 lished excerpts from the sermons of His Eminence the Car- 
 dinal Archbishop of Rheims, and of the Archbishops of Aix, 
 of Albi, of Sorrento ; the Bishop of Carcassonne, of Val- 
 ence, of Vannes, of Versailles, of Saint Flour, of Montpelier, 
 of Oran, and of Auckland. The pastoral letter of the Bishop 
 of Nevers of December 25, 1890 ; of the Archbishop of Mexico 
 of February 12, 1890 ; of the Bishop of Puebla of August 8, 
 1890; of Leon and of Vera-Cruz, in 1891; of Syracuse in 
 1895, of la Platta in 1898, of San-Juan-de Cuyo (Argentine 
 Republic) in 1900, of Ancud (Chile) in 1903, were also cited. 38 
 
 The long list of testimonials given in favor of the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Faith, can hardly be exhausted. 
 In the words of a venerable South American prelate, the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Faith was the "marvel 
 of the XIX century, thei most eminent which the religion of 
 Jesus Christ has inspired in recent times." It is a work 
 eminently Catholic, and it has often been so qualified by the 
 
 36. Proposition en faveur de la Propagation de la Foi, presentee 
 aux PP. du Concile du Vatican par cent cinquante-un eveques mission- 
 naires, in the Annales, t. XLII, pp. 159-161. 
 
 37. Annales, t. LXII, p. 7. 
 
 38. Annales, t. LXVII, pp. 229, et seq. 
 
 39. L'Oeuvre, etc., p. 33, 1908. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 73 
 
 Chief Pastors. Not only from Missions but from all parts 
 of the Christian world, from France, Ireland, Belgium, Italy, 
 Spain, Germany, the United States, Mexico, the Argentine 
 Republic and other South American republics, the Central 
 Councils have been continually rewarded by the most gratify- 
 ing letters. In the eloquent words of the illustrious prelate, 
 Bishop Freppel, it may be said : 
 
 "May God's Kingdom come! May it come for those infidel peoples 
 still living in darkness and in the shadow of death I May it come for 
 those idolatrous races who know not Jesus Christ, who are deprived of 
 the light and the consolations of the Faith ; who have not, like us, those 
 divine remedies against sin that the Church offers to her children 1 May 
 it come also for those countries in the East which are being moved at 
 this moment by the life-giving spirit of God; may it come also for those 
 perishing branches which for centuries have been detached by schism 
 from the trunk of Catholic unity I And, finally, may it come for our 
 separated brethren in both the old and new world who have retained 
 but a few shreds of doctrine and some semblance of Christian life I 
 Adveniat regnum tuum! Then, when that glorious day shall have 
 dawned upon the world, that day of spiritual birth for some and 
 of resurrection for others, if we would wish to know the source of these 
 divine blessings, we shall find, I say, as the principal instrument in 
 God's right hand, the society for the Propagation of the Faith. This 
 kingdom of God on earth will be its terrestrial crown, whilst awaiting 
 the time when it shall please God to grant its active and zealous 
 members their eternal reward. 40 
 
 Reference has already been made to the letters of Bishops 
 Du Bourg and Flaget, commenting upon the Rules of the 
 Association shortly after its foundation. The optimistic 
 attitude they assumed towards the Society proved fully 
 justified, especially in reference to the Church in the United 
 States, which is evidenced by the letters written to the Society 
 and in favor of the Society by the provincial and national 
 Councils. The first Provincial Council of Baltimore, on the 
 eve of its conclusion, addressed a joint letter of thanks 
 to the Councils of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith 
 which follows : 
 
 40. FRERI, op. cit., in the Annals, vol. LXXXV, p. 64, 1922. 
 
74 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 We eagerly seize the favorable occasion in which we are united in 
 national council to testify to His Eminence the President of the 
 Society of the Propagation of the Faith, to the Councils which direct it, 
 and to all the members of which it is composed, our lively and sincere 
 gratitude for the extraordinary favors which most of us have received 
 from this zealous and generous association. Even those among the 
 bishops who have not yet participated in its benevolence, convinced that 
 all the amounts distributed into the hands of their confreres have 
 served to form establishments extremely advantageous to the progress 
 of our holy religion, rejoice in this before the Lord, and from the 
 depths of their hearts join their thanks to those of their confreres who 
 have been more privileged; hoping that in the future donations this 
 inexhaustible association will deign to recall their names and furnish 
 them the same means to make religion flourish in their respective 
 dioceses. Thus, this beautiful Church of France, but a short while ago 
 purified by a persecution not less murderous than those which took 
 place under the pagan emperors, today offers to the Christian world 
 the holy and touching example of the primitive church. For, as in 
 former times, the Christendom of Greece and that of the Holy City 
 generously contributed to the Holy Church of the Gauls in sending their 
 missionaries filled with the Apostolic spirit and abundant alms, 
 eighteen centuries afterwards this France, justly grateful, distributes in 
 her turn into the new world immense sums for the formation of new 
 churches and sends here missionaries who endeavor to tread in the 
 footsteps of the Apostles. 
 
 Oh, may Heaven grant that the generosity of this illustrious 
 Church of Christ will place us in a position to be able, in our turn, to 
 form churches which will not delay to be established from the banks 
 of the Missouri as far as the Pacific Ocean! In this holy expectation 
 will you not seek to e'ncourage the faithful confided to our care to pray 
 for their pious benefactors; whilst the bishops and the clergy of the 
 United States make it a duty never to offer the sacrifice from our altars 
 without thinking of all the members of the venerable Association of 
 the Propagation of the Faith, and of the most Christian king, who 
 encourages such holy institutions in his vast empire. 
 
 Penetrated with all these sentiments, we have the honor to be, of 
 all the members of the Association (for the Propagation) of the Faith, 
 the very grateful and very devoted servants, James, Archbishop of 
 Baltimore, Benedict Joseph, Bishop of Bardstown, John, Bishop of 
 Charleston, Edward, Bishop of St. Louis, Benedict, Bishop of Boston, 
 William Mathew, Administrator of the Diocese of Philadelphia. 41 
 
 41. Annales, t. IV, pp. 112-114. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 75 
 
 In 1830, Bishop Du Bourg, at that time Bishop of 
 Montauban, France, wrote a letter on the Society from which 
 the following is cited: 
 
 Asia and Africa have their missionaries of whom we will speak 
 in a moment and America also has hers to whom we are bound, my 
 dearest brethren, by an affection, the cause of which you understand. 
 There is in America a vast and flourishing country known by the name 
 of the United States where some men, animated by invincible courage 
 and boundless charity, labor to establish the realm of Jesus Christ and 
 to make His Gospel prosper. The most consoling and most unexpected 
 successes are every day attained to encourage their efforts and increase 
 their hopes. Everywhere, at the voice of the generous Apostles, the 
 awakened people come out of their indifference, abjure their errors, 
 prostrate themselves before their new altars, rejoicing to be able to 
 address to God their sentiments of gratitude for the inappreciable 
 benefit of their vocation to the faith. In a small number of years, 
 ten dioceses, established on most solid bases, several seminaries perfectly 
 organized, numerous colleges confided to very learned and very respec- 
 table priests, preachers full of zeal and talent, pious and benevolent 
 associations, convents, monasteries and an ever increasing multitude of 
 faithful and devout Christians promise to this infant church a long 
 and glorious prosperity. 42 
 
 On October 26, 1833, a letter from the Fathers of the 
 Second Council of Baltimore to the Central Councils of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Faith, said in part: 
 
 . . . The benevolent hand, which in your Catholic zeal, you 
 extend over all parts of the earth has spread a holy joy both in our 
 cities and as far as the extremity of our forests and our deserts: the 
 religion, of which we are the interpreters owes you its vows (voeux) 
 and its prayers, and has inspired us to offer them to you according to 
 the ancient custom terminating the sessions of this Council. If it is 
 consoling for us to contemplate the holy eagerness of the faithful of 
 France to share with America the heritage of charity which they have 
 received from Asia it will not be less consoling for you to learn that 
 the grain which you have planted is bearing fruit; that new temples 
 rise up each day for the worship of the true God; that in nearly all 
 our dioceses we have established seminaries; that the colleges founded 
 for the instruction and the religious education of the youth obtain 
 an astonishing success; that the convents are multiplied; that the 
 natives shall finally be assisted; that 320 laborers at present work 
 
 42. Annales, t. IV, p. 262. 
 
76 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 in the vineyard of the Lord and that a number twice as large or even 
 greater still would scarcely respond to the needs of our vast province. 
 The twelfth diocese will be born without delay. Pray therefore, our 
 well beloved, that those who are the successors of the Apostles and 
 who represent them in this important portion of the new world, in 
 equaling their number walk in their footsteps, everywhere carrying 
 before them the torch of the faith and that of Apostolic virtues; then 
 your works shall be worthily crowned and the sowing of the grain of 
 mustard seed which you have sprinkled with your generous contribu- 
 tions will become a large tree in the shadow of which other peoples 
 will be able to take refuge. 48 
 
 The Fathers of the Fourth Provincial Council of Balti- 
 more wrote to the Presidents of the Councils of the South 
 and of the North (Lyons and Paris) and to the members of 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Faith on May 23, 
 1840: 
 
 By the benefit of a merciful Providence you were inspired, our 
 dear brethren, to come to the aid of the American Church at the very 
 epoch when, leaving a state of infancy, it sought a protecting hand to 
 steady its tottering steps and to send it forth into the desert to seek 
 there the abandoned sheep. A happy and noble inspiration which 
 impelled you, in the land sprinkled by the blood of Pothin and Irenaeus, 
 of these generous martyrs who seem to have bequeathed to you the 
 beautiful mission of in some way rendering to the entire universe this 
 heritage of faith which you received from Asia. Your Society, like 
 the grain of mustard of which the Gospel speaks, has developed with 
 that vigor of life which comes from on high; and after you have had 
 scarcely a few years of existence you have already extended its branches 
 of benevolence as far as the extremities of the earth and you have 
 accompanied the priest of Jesus Christ amongst the peoples so long 
 seated in the shadow of death. We rejoice, our dear brethren, in these 
 superabundant benedictions which God showers upon you, for if even 
 the glass of cold water given in the name of His Disciple is not without 
 merit for eternal life; if God contemplates with joy the widow's mite, 
 you who by your common offerings sustain the existence of his zealous 
 ministers who divide the world, have you not the sacred right to the 
 recompense of a prophet ? 44 
 
 43. Annales, t. VI, pp. 632-634; Missions Catholiques, t. IX, p. 523, 
 1877. 
 
 44. Annales, t. XII, pp. 409-410. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 77 
 
 The Fathers of the Fifth Council of Baltimore on May 
 20, 1843, sent a letter to the Presidents, Directors and 
 Members of the Propagation of the Faith. 
 
 No one can appreciate with more justice the benefits of this 
 Catholic spirit and the miracles of this ardent charity which sustain as 
 far as the extremities of the earth the torch of faith than those who, in 
 the new world have seen at close range the progress of the grain of 
 mustard seed which becomes a tree and furnishes shade and repose 
 to those who have grown weary in the ways and the errors of this 
 mortal life. Twenty-five years have scarcely passed by and already 
 seventeen pastors are united in the Sanctuary of the Metropolis to form 
 new flocks, to call around them other collaborators, to carry to the Holy 
 See a testimony of their veneration and of their entire submission and 
 to make uniform by uniting their counsels and their experiences, the 
 ecclesiastical discipline. ... It is God that has done all these 
 things. . . . It is to your Society to which we in large part owe 
 these marvels: it is to your charitable solicitude that we recommend 
 our infant churches; you will aid us to lay these foundations (six new 
 dioceses will soon be added to the sixteen which represent our province) 
 which are as the ramparts of truth. We will endeavor, sirs, to respond 
 to the appeal of your zeal and to extend the name and the influence 
 of this precious Society before God and before men. 45 
 
 The Fathers of the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore 
 wrote the following letter to the Directors of the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Faith : 
 
 The Fathers of the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore could 
 not close their grave and laborious session without expressing their 
 lively admiration of the marvelous success which your Society every- 
 where attains and without offering you the homage of their gratitude 
 and that of all the faithful committed to their care. They have not 
 forgotten that the needs of their infant Church gave birth to this 
 grand Society, that it is to your industry and charity that they are 
 indebted for the astonishing progress of the Faith in the United 
 States, and that if their venerable metropolitan presides over the 
 deliberations and directs the "conseils" of twenty-two of his brothers, 
 it is through you that he contemplates this admirable meeting which 
 recalls the beautiful days of the Church. Is it not touching, Gentlemen, 
 to see assembled around the same altar, twenty-three prelates and more 
 than fifty priests, all having but one heart and one soul, animated by 
 the same spirit of strength and of truth, partaking of each other's 
 
 45. Annales, t, XV, pp. 361-362. 
 
78 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 troubles and hopes, encouraging each other to combat under the old 
 standard which the successor of Peter, after eighteen centuries, still 
 shows to all the nations with ever- fresh vigor? 
 
 Our progress is sure, peaceful and full of promise, but we do not 
 wish to hide from you, Gentlemen, that our needs multiply in proportion 
 as we advance, that there is not a single diocese that is freed from 
 the bonds of its infancy, and that if we rejoice in the good of which 
 you have been the life-giving source, there remains still more to be 
 done. In 1810, the Church of the United States, as temples, had 
 nothing but cabins. The oldest dioceses therefore are still young, and 
 are very far from having acquired enough strength to walk without 
 aid. Seminaries, colleges, cathedrals, churches, religious houses, presby- 
 teries, asylums for the orphans of both sexes, hospitals, free schools, 
 ornaments of culte, everything, in a word, was to create. It is not yet 
 a quarter of a century since God raised you up to become the nursing 
 fathers of all Catholic Missions. The Kings at one time, glorified in 
 this title and in this privilege. It has passed from their hands to 
 those of the poor, and you are their faithful administrators. Cast your 
 glances towards our part of the New World; count the crosses which 
 everywhere show as the symbol of salvation. The work is solid, per- 
 manent, sheltered from the vicissitudes of all the enterprises which 
 charity has formed in the Orient. It is not, it is true, sprinkled with 
 the blood of martyrs, but it does not cease to be by the sweat of its 
 indefatigable priests. We think, and our thought is not too much at 
 hazard, that Providence is reserving for us a special mission, and that 
 the designs of God are great and magnificent for our future existence, 
 and since we are still only at the point of departure, that the emigration 
 from Europe is always unceasing and more numerous, that our sheep are 
 in general of those poor to whom the Gospel must be incessantly 
 announced, that the Christian education of the children belongs to our 
 position, that as resources, we only have what is sent us, we think, 
 I say, that as pastors, we owe to our weak flocks, to expose to you their 
 distress. Never was an epoch more important or more critical; it is that 
 of our development, it is that in which all upright and generous spirits 
 turn towards us, it is that of action and of combat. In continuing to 
 sustain us you will sooner enjoy the triumph of the Catholic Faith, you 
 will encourage us to persevere until the end, you will sow in a field 
 which already bears fruit in abundance, and perhaps you will one day 
 receive what you have loaned us. Witnesses of divine truth, we are 
 also the natural witnesses, the interpreters in regard to the needs which 
 burden us. 
 
 To respond to your appeal, Gentlemen, we recommend in the 
 pastoral letter of the Council, to the pastors and to the faithful, the 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 79 
 
 establishment of your Society in all our dioceses. We hasten to concur 
 in your good work, to give evidence of how much we appreciate the 
 benefits. . . .** 
 
 On May 14, 1849, the Fathers of the Seventh Council of 
 Baltimore wrote to the Presidents and Directors of the 
 Councils of the North and of the South of the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Faith: 
 
 The future of the Church which everywhere seems to be covered 
 with a mysterious cloud which presages the moment of combat, of trials 
 and of triumph; this future opens before us with the hopes, the 
 consolations and the vigor of a church still young, which grows like a 
 new vineyard and which will soon count among its laborers 
 six Archbishops and thirty Bishops. Besides the secular clergy, 
 we have as collaborators nine religious bodies or pious societies, a 
 precious portion of the militant church which edifies the pastors not less 
 than the faithful and of which the branches multiply from day to day. 
 Our communities of Sisters present a spectacle not less consoling. The 
 hospitals, the asylums for the orphans, the schools for the poor, the 
 boarding schools for the well-to-do class, establishments without number, 
 prosper under the direction of the virgins consecrated to God. One 
 thought always afflicts us, that of not being able to spread to all the 
 children of the faith the benefits of a religious education. You will 
 easily understand, sirs, the immensity of our needs and the greatness 
 of our responsibility when you (will) learn that the European and 
 Catholic emigration now surpasses the figure of 250,000 souls per year. 
 The emigrants are, with few exceptions, poor and destitute of resources; 
 they are driven to America by famines and by revolutions; they come 
 to seek here an existence which the old world only offers precariously. 
 For these poor, churches and pastors are needed; for their children, 
 instruction, spiritual bread and often nourishment for the body (are 
 needed) you will well understand, sirs, for the annual increase of 
 Catholics alone we ought to annually procure 300 priests, build 300 
 churches, 300 schools. Now that is what our position is: the old 
 dioceses which for the most part are found to be the most favored and 
 solidly established respond but weakly to the cries and the needs of 
 the multitude: those (dioceses) which are in their infancy and have 
 only small, scattered and poor populations have not yet an assured 
 existence and languish through lack of assistance. The charity of 
 Jesus Christ urges us, sirs, to recommend to your protection and to 
 your generous solicitude this church of which we are the pastors. . . . 
 And to express to you this gratitude of heart for which there is no 
 more just or more eloquent expression than that of the Apostle: We 
 
 46. Annales, t. XVIII, pp. 393-396. 
 
80 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 have a great joy, my brethren, and a great consolation into your charity, 
 for the hearts of the saints have been refreshed and comforted by you.* T 
 
 A pastoral letter of the Archbishops and Bishops of the 
 United States in First National Council assembled at Balti- 
 more (1852), to the Clergy and Laity of their charge follows: 
 
 Our Holy Father Pius IX has recommended to our notice, as well 
 as that of all the Bishops of the Church, the Society established at 
 Lyons in France, for the purpose of aiding apostolic missionaries in the 
 Propagation of the Faith. Independently of the authority which has 
 thus spoken, our own feelings would prompt us to address you on the 
 subject. From the time of its first establishment, almost thirty years 
 ago, up to the present time, this association has contributed, generously 
 and uninterruptedly, to the support of our missions. If our churches 
 have so rapidly multiplied; if our religious and educational establish- 
 ments are now comparatively numerous; if new missions and new 
 dioceses amidst most appalling discouragements, still continue to be 
 founded we must, in truth, and justice, acknowledge, that in all this 
 the Association for the Propagation of the Faith has afforded us the 
 most generous and most enlightened cooperation. We feel the obligations 
 which we have to an Association which is identified with the progress 
 of religion in every part of the world: and we, therefore, exhort you 
 Brethren, to encourage its establishment in your respective districts, 
 agreeably to the wishes of the Sovereign Pontiff, who desires to see the 
 whole Catholic world united in an effort to diffuse the Gospel of Christ 
 throughout all nations. The small annual contribution made to this 
 Association will not interfere with any effort of Christian zeal or 
 charity; and we cherish the conviction, that its establishment will draw 
 down from God the choicest blessings on all who unite in this truly 
 good work. 48 
 
 The Fathers of the First Plenary Council of Baltimore 
 on May 20, 1852, sent the following letter to the Society : 
 
 The Fathers of the First National Council of the United States, 
 six Archibshops and twenty-six Bishops, united by the authorization 
 and the desires of the Venerable Successsor of St. Peter, have received 
 the prayer which you have offered, with joy and gratitude. They have 
 decreed by a vote of acclamation that the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Faith shall be established in all their dioceses, even envious of 
 marching in your footsteps, they have appreciated the simple but fecund 
 
 47. Annales, t. XXI, pp. 289-291. 
 
 48. Metropolitan Catholic Almanac and Laity's Directory for the 
 Tear of Our Lord 1853, p. 51. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 81 
 
 manner which distinguished the administration of your Society from 
 all the others. How could they not have responded to tne appeal of 
 your zeal in seeing the great things which Providence has created about 
 them and of which you have been the principal instruments by the 
 charity of the poor? The Fathers of the Council recall the epoch when 
 six bishops governed the Church of the United States and today there 
 are as many metropolitan churches. The hierarchy is composed today 
 of thirty-three prelates, and soon twelve new cooperators shall be added 
 to this number. What a glorious future is reserved for us, I dare, or 
 we dare say, they already belong to us. Our work of creation progresses 
 in proportion to the past, striving in speed with the movement of the 
 country and extending itself as far as the Pacific Ocean, we are per- 
 mitted to hope and to believe that before twenty-five years at most the 
 American portion of the Catholic Church will have as many Episcopal 
 Sees as the most ancient realms of Europe. Is it not a miracle of 
 Providence that the rapid increase of the true church in this part of 
 the New World, where the prejudices of error have sunk such deep 
 roots, where riches and influence formed a wall of opposition, where 
 the greatest poverty was the least of our difficulties? But God knew 
 that a large part of Europe was to set forth towards North America 
 and that is why (voila qu'il) He renews the prodigies of the Apostolate 
 and of the missions. He inspired the idea of your Society and He 
 surrounded it with the fullness of his benediction, and presents what 
 is unique in the annals of the Church that is that a small number of 
 laymen, receiving their first mission of charity, become, under the 
 protection of the Holy See, the husband of a nursing mother of all the 
 missions of Catholicism. How can one refrain from crying out: "How 
 beautiful are your tabernacles, oh God of Israel" when we contem- 
 plate in one and the same sanctuary the Bishops who, although separated 
 by a distance of more than two thousand leagues, have at the voice 
 of the Holy Father, braved the distances, the fatigues, the sea and 
 the privations in order to consult upon the need of their infant churches. 
 We pray you, sirs, not to forget in the object of your prudent charity 
 the multiplied needs which are necessarily born in America from this 
 extraordinary development and to be mindful that we have to provide 
 for the spiritual, and often the bodily existence of 200,000 Catholics 
 at least who annually arrive from Europe. There is not here a single 
 diocese the organization of which is complete and which is capable of 
 responding to the demands of the faithful. New Sees cannot exist but 
 by" your charity and among those we recommend to you in a particular 
 manner that of Oregon. . . . 49 
 
 49. Annales, t. XXIV, pp. 401-403. 
 
82 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 A letter of Archbishop Hughes, of New York, written in 
 the name of the First Provincial Council of New York to 
 the Members of the Councils of the Propagation of the Faith, 
 New York, October 9, 1854, contains the following eulogy : 
 
 Our first duty after we have addressed the Common Father 
 of the Faithful is to express with unanimous voice our gratitude to the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Faith. In the vast territory which 
 now forms the ecclesiastical province of New York there were thirty 
 years ago only two Bishops, eleven priests and about 40,000 Catholics. 
 Today we have an Archbishop with eight suffragans, very nearly 500 
 priests and about 1,000,000 Catholics. At the sight of the rapid progress 
 of our holy religion it is impossible for us not to bring our thoughts 
 back towards the admirable Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 to which we are in large part indebted for such a great 'benefit : it is 
 equally impossible for us to disperse without testifying our gratitude 
 toward you, sirs, who are its representatives and who distribute its 
 funds with so much wisdom. These thousands of poor immigrants who 
 annually settle in our respective dioceses and find here, thanks to your 
 charity, priests and altars; these poor lost sheep which every year we 
 have the consolation of bringing back into the fold of the unique Pastor; 
 these numerous orphans tenderly brought up by our good sisters; the 
 number still greater of young children preserved in our Catholic schools 
 from the poison of heresy; this body of zealous missionaries which 
 you sustain by your prayers and your alms; all our faithful in a word 
 unite their voice to ours to testify to you their lively and very sincere 
 gratitude. For a long time, sirs, we have desired to establish among 
 us the Society for the Propagation of the Faith; but the circumstances 
 under which we found ourselves did not permit us to do it in all the 
 dioceses. The Fathers of the Council of New York have resolved to 
 take immediate measures to propagate it in their dioceses and they are 
 eager to communicate to you this resolution unanimously adopted in 
 their assembly. It is unfortunately too certain that there now exists 
 in this country some secret and powerful coalitions, whose end is none 
 other than to abolish Catholicism in the United States. Witness the 
 insults, the daily calumnies to which we are exposed; witness the 
 churches which have been burnt or demolished. May it not please God 
 that we be discouraged! Mary Immaculate is our powerful and 
 glorious protector and the extension of Catholicism among us which is 
 already so great a gauge of the merciful views of God towards our 
 Church. Yes we are convinced that God desires to communicate the 
 lights of the Faith to this people whom He has conquered by the blood 
 of His Son; we say more: God desires to make use of our nation to 
 bring back to the truth these distant peoples to whom it has access 
 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 83 
 
 by the extension of its commerce. Permit us therefore, sirs, to urgently 
 solicit a continuation of the assistance which you have accorded us, the 
 good which these allocations will aid us to accomplish is the good 
 which will have permanent effect. We are living in the midst of an 
 intelligent, civilized people in a vast and fertile territory; it is there- 
 fore permissible for us to ' hope, following the ordinary course of 
 Providence, that our pious institutions shall be a source of sanctification 
 for the present generation and for those to come in the midst of a 
 people which appears destined to play a grand role in the history of 
 nations. It is impossible for us in a letter to expose to you the extent 
 of our needs. If we rejoice to have been able to establish some schools 
 and orphan asylums, our heart is wrung with sorrow in thinking that 
 the larger part of our children remain exposed to the dangers of error, 
 to the contagion of bad example, without a sufficient number of teachers 
 to instruct them, of priest to sanctify them by the sacraments. Often 
 we rejoice to learn that a new church is to be consecrated to Catholic 
 worship, but more often still we grieve to see entire parishes without 
 pastors to guide them, without resources to construct a modest chapel. 
 However, our Catholic population becomes every year more numerous 
 by immigration so that the Bishops of even the most flourishing cities 
 often have reason to bewail not being able to finance the construction 
 of churches in proportion to their ever increasing number. Moreover, 
 there are in the province of New York some recently erected dioceses 
 for which must be procured a more numerous clergy, churches, semi- 
 naries, where all, in one work, is to be created. It is therefore with 
 a just title and I dare say, with confidence, that we pray you to continue 
 your allocations. It remains with us to bless you with all our heart and 
 to assure you of our gratitude and our respect. 50 
 
 The Fathers of the Eighth Council of Baltimore, to the 
 Councils of the Propagations of the Faith, Baltimore, May 
 14, 1855, wrote as follows: 
 
 . . . There remained only six Suffragan Bishops of the province 
 of Baltimore, but the dioceses of Charleston and Savannah are repre- 
 sented in this Council by their worthy administrators. Several among 
 us have made known to you in particular the needs and the progress of 
 their respective dioceses, and have made it a pleasure and a duty to 
 recognize the generous liberality of the Association of which you, sirs, 
 are the administrators. Now that we are assembled, we are eager to do 
 in common what we have already done separately: we thank you with 
 all our hearts for the zeal which you have shown for the missions of 
 America; we pray and we have the faithful of our dioceses pray for 
 
 50. Annales, t. XXVII, pp. 81-84. 
 
84 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 you. Through your agency we express the sentiments of our hearts 
 towards these generous souls who, in all the countries, are associated 
 with the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. We declare anew our 
 sincere desire to here cooperate as soon and as much as circumstances 
 permit us. But sirs, permit me also to recall to you the pressing and 
 ceaselessly recurring needs of the dioceses which are confided to us 
 and to represent to you by a united voice that in several dioceses of this 
 province these needs are very great. Without citing any one in 
 particular, we are content to say that there is almost no one of them 
 which has not a right to your charitable solicitude. But we are not 
 ignorant of your good will towards ourselves and our missions and we 
 do not believe it our duty to add anything to this general testimony by 
 a report of the condition of our province. You have learned by the 
 published papers and the private letters of Bishops the progress which 
 Catholicism makes, the increase of the number of churches and of 
 priests and the multiplication of the faithful still more rapid than 
 that of the temples of religion. We rejoice in it and you, sirs, have 
 good reason to participate in our joy, having comforted our labors and 
 facilitated our success. May God recompense you in bestowing upon 
 you while on earth the riches from on high and after this life the 
 crown promised to the faithful and zealous servant. 51 
 
 On May 20, 1855, the First Provincial Council of Cincin- 
 nati wrote the following letter to the Councils of the 
 Society : 
 
 We are happy, in terminating our first Provincial Council to offer 
 you the homage of our lively gratitude for the generous assistance 
 which we have received from such an eminently Catholic Society. 
 
 We must loudly proclaim it, our young Church of America is 
 languishing; it even suffered deplorable losses before your Association 
 came to its assistance. Since then, a great amelioration has taken 
 place: the lights of faith have been carried more regularly and more 
 efficaciously to our poor natives; the number of conversions among our 
 erring brethren has increased; our Catholics, hastening here from all 
 parts of Europe, and scattered here and there in the midst of our forests 
 and our cities, are no longer as heretofore, exposed unprotected to the 
 artifices of error, or to the fatal consequences of ignorance; a more 
 numerous clergy visits them; consoles and protects them against the 
 snares and the persecutions of these later times. In place of the savage 
 hut or of the rustic fireside in which we distributed the bread of the 
 word, we have seen chapels, churches, cathedrals erected in which 
 the Catholic is encouraged, fortified, and in which the Protestant of 
 
 51. Annales, t. XXVII, p. 401. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 85 
 
 good faith is stripped of his prejudices and his hatred against the 
 Spouse of Jesus Christ. Our seminaries, the source of ecclesiastical 
 learning and virtue, are organized and begin to furnish us subjects, 
 to relieve the veterans of the priesthood who have so nobly fought on 
 the field of the Gospel. We will not attempt to tell you how great 
 has been the number of orphans whom the Church has lost, and whom 
 it now counts in the midst of its most violent enemies; moreover, I 
 will not speak of that multitude of sick who have appealed in vain for 
 the consolations of the faith at their last hour; nor of those thousands 
 of children who from their infancy have drunk from the cup of error 
 and 'of indifference in our public schools. Fifty years ago, the Church 
 of the New World sighed and bemoaned the loss of its unfortunate 
 children ; fifty years ago, it labored to close its mortal wounds. Oh, 
 may Heaven be blessed! Here as everywhere, the old Faith has the 
 remedies for all ailments, the consolations for all sorrows; it has 
 commenced to found its schools, its religious communities, its hospitals, 
 its asylums. To the youth it gives an instructor to teach him at one 
 time, his duties as a citizen and the route to Heaven ; to the orphan 
 and the sick, it gives a mother or a sister of charity: that is how, little 
 by little, our Infant Church responds to its noble mission. 
 
 But who gives it strength and life, and who sustains it today in 
 the midst of its perils and the furious strife in which it is engaged? 
 We must publish it, Providence has raised up your Society, Gentlemen, 
 as one of the most efficacious means to prepare and complete its triumph 
 in this hemisphere. But it is not enough for us to recognize it, it is 
 our duty to imitate you. That is why, at the solicitaton of tho 
 Sovereign Pontiff and to cede to the voice of conscience we are eager 
 to establish the Society for the Propagation of the Faith; only we 
 regret that by reason of the financial crisis and of the high cost of 
 living which so cruelly make themselves felt here this year, the result 
 of our effort will not respond to our expectation. We hope, however 
 that better times will soon aid us to put a more abundant alms in the 
 common treasury of your Society, and to offer to your wise adminis- 
 tration, by it a feeble compensation for your long and generous 
 benefits. 52 
 
 The letter sent by the Fathers of the First Provincial 
 Council of New Orleans to the Members of the Central 
 Councils of the Propagation of the Faith, dated New Orleans, 
 January 27, 1856, was : 
 
 52. Annales, t. XXVII, pp. 334-337. 
 
86 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 The Fathers of the First Provincial Council of New Orleans in 
 devoting themselves to the interests of their respective dioceses and 
 blessing God for the graces which He has accorded to all their flocks, 
 naturally think of the benefits which your noble and holy Society has 
 spread over the young church of America and of which the fruits are 
 today so visible and so remarkable. The last act of their sessions, a 
 spontaneous act from their Catholic hearts, and one which resumes all 
 the deliberations, has been to thank Providence for having inspired at 
 the determined time in the faithful of Europe of which your Councils 
 are the soul, to console, fortify and vivify by their charity the faithful 
 of the United States. Admirable successes have crowned your first 
 efforts and lead us to hope that you will enjoy the benedictions of a 
 small flock which you have seen born, grow and multiply. Five bishops 
 are grouped around their elder brother, the Bishop of New Orleans, and 
 labor to lay the foundation of the Holy Catholic Church upon the rock. 
 These dioceses are still young and only received a little assistance from 
 European immigration, they still have need of the superabundant charity 
 of your Society. You will no doubt learn with pleasure that we have 
 established branches of the same Association in all our province, and 
 that pastors and flock rejoice to be members of this body which so 
 well represents the strength and the extent of the charity of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Our alms shall be that of the widow of the temple. May 
 the eye of Him which nothing escapes see it and His hand .bless it. 58 
 
 On May 8, 1858, the Fathers of the Provincial Council of 
 Cincinnati wrote to the Associates of the Propagation of 
 the Faith : 
 
 Gentlemen, Sensible to the pecuniary assistance accorded by the 
 Association for the Propagation of the Faith to the different dioceses 
 of the province of Cincinnati; and in view of the precious advantages 
 which have resulted from this assistance, for the advancement of 
 religion and the sanctification of a multitude of souls, who would be 
 exposed to perish without such aid, the bishops of this province, 
 assembled in council, cannot separate without testifying and expressing 
 through you to all the Members of the Councils of your excellent Society, 
 the sentiments of our gratitude. 
 
 When, looking around us, we consider the good already accomplished 
 and for which we are in large part, indebted to the ardent zeal of the 
 faithful who make up the important and pious Association for the 
 Propagation of the Faith, our hearts naturally rise towards God, to 
 ask Him to bless and propagate more every day, a Society so con- 
 
 53. Annalcs, t. XXVIII, pp. 257-258, 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 87 
 
 formable to the designs of His mercy, and we pray especially that His 
 benedictions be extended to all those who direct it, who sustain it by 
 their offerings or their alms. 
 
 This sentiment is rendered more lively by the consideration of the 
 needs which are multiplied with the increase of the Catholic population, 
 which is spreading into all parts of our dioceses, and also by the 
 difficulties which the opulence of the sects which surround us and 
 unjust legislation give rise to. 
 
 The education of our children, which they seek to snatch away 
 from us in the schools sustained by the public funds, which expand 
 from the enormous taxes we are forced to pay, without procuring any 
 advantage from it, does more to expand our resources; and it is only 
 by sacrifices, too often in excess of our strength, that we can sustain 
 the faith and protect the morals of our children. This difficult situation 
 will not, however, prevent us from spreading, in as much as this is in 
 our power, in our respective dioceses, an Association of which we 
 ought by a very just title, to appreciate the benefits, since each of us 
 owes to it, more or less, the prosperity of that part of the vineyard of 
 the Lord confided to his care. 54 
 
 The Fathers of the Provincial Council of St. Louis wrote 
 the following letter to the Directors of the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Faith, dated St. Louis, September 12, 
 1858: 
 
 Assembled in Council in the Metropolis of St. Louis the different 
 dioceses which compose this province were unwilling to disperse without 
 testifying their gratitude to the admirable Society for the Propagation 
 of the Faith. We experience a great consolation in having this occasion 
 to render to you such a well merited tribute. The assistance which 
 we have received and still receive from your charity has aided us in 
 the most efficacious manner to build our churches, to found our 
 establishments and to maintain them. It would be useless to enumerate 
 that which each of our dioceses owes to the Society; still more so to 
 repeat how many Bishops and missionaries in all parts of the world 
 are indebted to it, the large number of churches, schools and houses 
 of charity erected through its assistance. 
 
 ''We see witn joy that Providence is pleased to bless this Associa- 
 tion, so eminently religious, and that it has made it prosper throughout 
 so many difficulties; we keenly share the solicitude of the Holy Father 
 in favor of the Society and what we regret is that our poverty does not 
 permit us to increase still more the number of your subscribers. Most 
 of our dioceses are newly erected in the least inhabited part of this 
 
 54. Annales, t. XXX, pp. 399-401. 
 
88 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 vast continent: we have therefore to face the greatest embarassments 
 and obstacles; but the visible benedictions which -God deigns to shower 
 upon our feeble labors and the rapid progress of our holy religion 
 sweeten the burden of our formidable responsibility. 55 
 
 The Archbishop and Bishops of the Province of New 
 Orleans wrote the following letter to the President and 
 Members of the Central Councils which was received on 
 February 24, 1860 : 
 
 The labors of the Second Provincial Council of New Orleans are 
 at an end. 
 
 Before separating, the Fathers of the Council desired to offer the 
 collective expression of their respect and of their profound gratitude 
 to you, Gentlemen, to whom the dispositions of Providence have confided 
 the high direction of one of the most astonishing Catholic societies 
 which since the Apostolic times, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has 
 raised up for the extension of his reign upon earth. 
 
 Accustomed, as they are, to hear the cries of distress which cease- 
 lessly come to them from all parts of the world, your eminently 
 Christian souls have always generously had compassion on the numerous 
 necessities of the peoples confided to our solicitude by the Prince of 
 pastors; your charity has always heard and welcomed our humble 
 requests. 
 
 It is with happiness that we express our gratitude for it, Gentlemen ; 
 it is with consolation also that we recall that the first inspiration, and 
 as the germ of the grand Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 
 came forth, over forty years ago, from the noble heart of one of the 
 first bishops of New Orleans. Since the day on which Monsignor Du 
 Bourg deposed it in some pure and humble souls of our France, the little 
 seed has once again realized the prodigious growth promised by Jesus 
 Christ to His Church, to the Kingdom of God on earth. The tender 
 plant has become an immense tree, in which, from one end of the earth 
 to the other, the powerful branches protect with their shade, and 
 nourish with their fruit the numerous and devoted laborers of the 
 Father of the family. 
 
 The reports which you have successively received from the different 
 dioceses of our province have sufficiently well informed you, Gentlemen, 
 of the ever increasing prosperity of the Holy Church of Jesus Christ 
 in this old land of Louisiana and the Floridas, for the miseries of 
 which the voice of Monsignor Du Bourg had accents of such just and 
 profound sorrow. 
 
 55. Annales, t. XXXI, pp. 5-6; Annales, t. XXXII, pp. 201-203. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 89 
 
 In the solemn circumstances which assemble us, what we maintain 
 and proclaim is that after God, it is to the grand Society for the 
 Propagation of the Faith that are for the most part, due the very fruitful 
 benedictions which have not ceased to descend upon our people. 
 
 God is faithful, Gentlemen, and so many benedictions showered 
 from your hands upon the indigence of our missions will return a 
 hundredfold to the members of the Society and to you, especially, 
 Gentlemen, who bear with such generous devotion the incessant fatigues 
 of an administration which has no other end than the end of our 
 ministry itself. That in all things and iri all places, Jesus Christ be 
 glorified and that His truth and His charity reign over all the earth. 
 
 The Fathers of the Provincial Council of Cincinnati, on 
 May 6, 1861, wrote the following letter to the Directors of 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Faith : 
 
 Mr. President, The prelates of the Province of Cincinnati, assembled 
 in Council, have been unwilling to separate without giving testimony 
 to the Members of the Council of the Propagation of the Faith of 
 their lively gratitude. The benevolence manifested towards all during 
 long years and which several (dioceses) are still today the object, 
 could not be forgotten and they are pleased to renew to you their 
 thanks. The institutions and the religious edifices for which we are 
 in large part indebted to the Association which your Councils rule 
 over with so much zeal and wisdom, are so many monuments of generosity 
 which will always recall to the faithful of the United States that which 
 they owe to their brothers of Europe and which will assure to our 
 benefactors a very dear remembrance in our prayers. 
 
 Mr. President, May God grant the sincere good wishes which 
 we nourish for the success of a Society so useful to religion; may 
 He bless all the Members of this pious and holy Association; may 
 He bless especially those who so generously devote themselves to 
 maintain and extend it." 
 
 The following letter of the Bishops united in the Second 
 Plenary Council at Baltimore to the Central Councils of 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Faith was dated 
 Baltimore, 1866 : 
 
 The Bishops assembled in Plenary Council have a lively sense of the 
 debt of gratitude imposed on them by the liberalities of Catholic 
 charity concentrated in your hands. . . . We openly acknowledge 
 that your offerings have had a considerable share in the development 
 of our church. . . . Henceforth, the Church of the United States 
 
 56. Annalcs, t. XXXII, pp. 201-203. 
 
 57. Annales, t. XXXIII, pp. 337-338. 
 
90 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 will endeavor to occupy in your reports a place more worthy of the 
 rank assigned to it by the extent of its territory, the abundance of its 
 resources and the wonderful increase given it by the Almighty. 118 
 
 The Central Councils of the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Faith received the following letter from the Bishops 
 united at Baltimore in Provincial Council, dated Baltimore, 
 May 2, 1869: 
 
 The Bishops assembled for the celebration of the Tenth Provincial 
 Council of Baltimore believe they would fail in a very sweet duty 
 which is imposed upon them by gratitude joined with the desire of 
 seeing the realm of God extended more and more among them if they 
 did not profit by the favorable occasion which presents itself of 
 testifying to the Directors of the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith and in them to all the so numerous and so zealous members of the 
 Association, the sentiments which fill their hearts. The ways of God 
 are truly admirable: Quis cognovit sensum Domini? aut quis Consiliarius 
 ejus fuit (Bom. XI., 34). At an epoch when the furious Revolution 
 had overturned the churches, annihilated the ancient liberties of 
 sanctuary, despoiled the clergy, usurped the riches with which the 
 faith of our fathers have enriched the altars, He inspired by His all- 
 powerful grace, a thought of zeal and generosity in some poor, but 
 devout souls. And from their poverty has risen a fund almost equal 
 to that which impiety had seized but on which it could no longer lay 
 its sacrilegious hands. The mite of the widow, of the artisan, of the 
 peasant, of the laborer and of the servant girl has been changed into 
 a colossal sum which will go on as it has for nearly a half century 
 increasing more and more and thus more and more proving the large 
 number as well as the generous charity of the children of the Catholic 
 Church. The offering of the poor enables the missionary to penetrate 
 into China and into Japan, to visit the burning sands of Africa and the 
 frozen regions of the two poles. This offering gives us the means of 
 building our churches in the inaccessible forests of the New World and 
 if Catholicism has dug deep its roots in our country, if it has received 
 rapid and marvelous development we owe it in large part to the cooper- 
 ation of your admirable Society. We have quite recently enlarged the 
 sphere of our ecclesiastical hierarchy and we hope that your ingenious 
 zeal will see new posts where your assistance will become the necessary 
 instrument of a thousand good works. 59 
 
 58. Annales, t. XXXIX, pp. 79-81. 
 
 59. Missions Catholiques, t. II, pp. 169-170; Annales, t. XLI, pp. 
 251-253. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 91 
 
 The Fathers of the Third Provincial Council of New 
 Orleans addressed the following letter to the Members of the 
 Central Councils of the Society of the Propagation of the 
 Faith, dated New Orleans, January 21, 1873 : 
 
 . . . Yes, in truth, it is from God that this work, unique in the 
 history of the centuries and which in commanding the admiration of 
 the faith offers itself in these latter times to the Holy Church as a 
 consolation in the midst of her immense sorrows. ... It was at 
 this epoch . . . that under the hand of God was born in humility 
 a Society destined to grow to the height of a power which we have 
 not known since the Apostolic days, the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Faith, the simplicity and the charity of which have hurled a 
 victorious defiance down to the very depths of Satan. Who will not 
 admire with us the so prodigious and so rapid extension given by this 
 Society of Faith to the realm of God in the entire world? Who would 
 not admire this net work of Apostolic ways opened by it during a half 
 century to these thousands of evangelical workers who have illumined 
 with the great lights of the City of God the lands which were covered 
 by darkness, the peoples who were enveloped in the sombre night? Who 
 would not admire this ever increasing multitude of Episcopal Sees 
 which seat in a stable manner the Kingdom of Jesus Christ there where 
 Satan reigned, indefinitely pushing back the boundaries of the Divine 
 Realm? Who would not admire this number of altars which has become 
 innumerable, erected by the great Society in all climates and concerning 
 which is finally verified to the letter the sacred oracle which promised 
 that from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof there shall 
 be offered the immaculate oblation of the Lamb immolated from the 
 foundation of the world? Who would not admire and who will count 
 the colleges, the communities, the holy asylums of all kinds, sown by 
 it with profusion as far as the most unknown lands and whence rise 
 towards Heaven more praises, prayers and love than impiety was able 
 to hurl of hatred and of malediction? Who would not admire, finally, 
 how in our days, otherwise so evil, the map of our globe has become 
 that of the pacific and benevolent conquest of the holy Church, conquest 
 of blood and of sweat of Apostolic men, nourished, clad, encouraged 
 by this truly Christian Society of the Propagation of the Faith? If, 
 resting our gaze upon the American Union to which we belong we 
 consider the present condition of the Church of Jesus Christ, with its 
 seven ecclesiastical provinces, its 62 Bishops, its 5,000 priests, its 150 
 convents of men, its 400 communities of women, its 4,000 churches, its 
 90 colleges, its hospitals, its asylums for children and for the old and 
 its numberless Christian schools and then we consider that scarcely 
 a half a century ago this vast republic had only a few Bishops directing 
 
92 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 some hundred priests and a dozen or more religious establishments, we 
 adore the hand of God who has done all these things and a just 
 gratitude carries us back towards the Society of which it pleased 
 God to make the principal instrument of His mercies. The millions of 
 francs which it has so generously showered upon us have not done 
 all, no doubt, and should not do all. And without this Society, however, 
 where would we be? How many dioceses whose creation would have 
 been impossible! How many vocations to the Apostolate would have 
 rested useless! How many establishments, without it, either would 
 never have existed or would have perished through lack of resources! 
 Therefore, blessed be this Society which will remain one of the grand 
 glories of our century as it is one of the highest manifestations of 
 the indestructible life of the church and of the power of God for its 
 conservation. Blessed be the faithful who have understood that the 
 first of the alms is that which saves souls. Blessed be the generous 
 men who for fifty years have succeeded one another in the prudent 
 direction of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and in the 
 wise distribution of the treasure of Catholic charity. For us, Sirs, who 
 owe- you so much and who dare to rely upon a concurrence of your 
 charity as much for our dioceses as for the new dioceses which we 
 solicit the Holy See to create in our province, we exert ourselves to 
 communicate to the people who are confided to us the sentiments which 
 animate us and to increase, according to our strength, the prosperity 
 of the Society. 60 
 
 Finally, the Third Council of Baltimore held in 1884, 
 the most important ecclesiastical assembly up to our time in 
 the United States, recommended the Society in still stronger 
 terms to the charity of the faithful, obeying in this the 
 orders given to the bishops by His Holiness Leo XIII. 
 Following the example of their predecessors, the Fathers of 
 the Council again decreed the establishment of the Society 
 in all dioceses in which it did not already exist. His Eminence 
 Cardinal Gibbons, in the name of the Council, dated Balti- 
 more, December 6, 1884, wrote to the Directors of the Society: 
 
 With admirable wisdom which he had received from Jesus Christ, 
 the Doctor of the Gentiles, traced for us with His Apostolic hand the 
 symbolic image of the Church. He represented it to us as the living 
 body of which we are the members and of which the Saviour is the 
 head. As the influence, the direction, and the empire of the head is 
 extended over the entire body so the members united in a compact 
 
 60. Annales, t. XLV, pp. 235-239. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 93 
 
 transmit the influences which they receive from their Chief. That is 
 why the Divine Saviour considered as done to Himself the good or evil 
 which one docs to His Church; that is also why, in the language of St. 
 Paul, if one member of this mystically organized body is in suffering, 
 all the members sympathize with him and if one member is in joy all 
 participate in his rejoicing. This doctrine, so beautful, so just and 
 so edifying, you have constantly presented to the memory, Sirs, when 
 from a prosperous and generous country you extend your inexhaustible 
 charity to all the countries, to all the people of the Catholic world. 
 You fly to the help of those who are in need, you furnish to those 
 who are in distress the means of doing good, you aid to edify, you 
 contribute to repair ruins with the intimate persuasion that Jesus 
 Christ Himself will render account of the good which you do to the 
 distant members of His mystic body. It is a very sweet duty which 
 gratitude imposes upon us of publicly recognizing the signal services 
 which the blessed Society of the Propagation of the Faith has rendered 
 to the young Church of the United States. If the grain of mustard 
 seed planted in the virgin soil of America has struck deep roots and 
 has grown into a gigantic tree which extends its branches from the 
 shores of the Atlantic Ocean as far as the coast of the Pacific Ocean, it 
 is mainly to the assistance rendered by your admirable Society, 
 Gentlemen, that we are indebted for this blessing. Assembled for the 
 third time in Plenary Council, the Archbishops and Bishops of the 
 Republic of the United States feel a justifiable joy in thinking of the 
 cooperation which you have never ceased to extend to the Apostles of the 
 Catholic Faith in the New World, from the year 1822 to the present 
 day; and the sums which during that time you have allotted to the 
 different dioceses and missions of this vast country, are a striking 
 proof of the zeal and charity with which you never cease to aid us. In 
 our turn, we ardently desire to contribute to the immense good which 
 you are doing in all parts of the globe; and if up to now our most 
 prosperous provinces have only succeeded in furnishing you a relatively 
 modest sum it is because there are great vacant spaces among us to be 
 filled in and pressing needs to satisfy, however the time is approaching 
 when we will be in a position to prove to you that the Catholic people 
 of this country do not permit themselves to be surpassed in generosity 
 and in benevolence in the great work of the Propagation of the Faith. 
 And while we still recommend most earnestly to your charity of which 
 we have received so many evidences, the poorest churches and the most 
 desolate churches of this Republic, we dare give you the sweet hope 
 that if Divine Providence blesses our efforts the gifts of our faithful 
 will become at the same time a powerful means of aiding you to continue 
 your charity and as a restitution of the benefits which your solicitude 
 has showered upon us. 81 
 
 61. Annales, t. LVII, pp. 120-122. 
 
94 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 One of the most important ways in which the Church has 
 cooperated with the Society during the last hundred years 
 is the steadfast support given it by Propaganda. 
 
 All matters concerning the Missions in general fall under 
 the jurisdiction of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda 
 Fide, and although the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith submits the schedule of its allocations to the Con- 
 gregation for approval before the money is paid out, and 
 also considers the wishes of the Sovereign Pontiff in formu- 
 lating this schedule, nevertheless Propaganda does not 
 exercise an active role in the functions of the Society. The 
 Sacred Congregation encourages, blesses and applauds the 
 efforts of private initiative, but it refrains from distributing 
 the free aid which Providence raises up for its envoys. The 
 chief function which the Sacred Congregation has performed 
 for the benefit of the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith has consisted in exerting its constant and repeated 
 efforts to maintain the unity and universality of this Society." 2 
 In treating this matter in chronological order it will only be 
 necessary to mention a few of the important communications 
 between the Society and the Sacred Congregation. 
 
 On August 28, 1827, the Sacred Congregation expressed 
 its gratitude to the President of the Council of Lyons for 
 having appropriated a sum of money to aid the Church of 
 China. 68 
 
 On February 23, 1828, a reply of the Sacred Congregation 
 to a request from the President of the Central Council of 
 Lyons, asking the Sacred Congregation which Missions were 
 most in need of assistance, dwelt upon the need of Bishop 
 John Dubois, of New York, in which it quotes this phrase 
 from a letter of that prelate: "Quid vero dicam de gravi 
 
 62. LE BOY, La Propaganda in the Missions Catholiques, t. XXXVII, 
 p. 46, 1905; FRERI, Propagation of the Faith in the Catholic Encyclo- 
 pedia, vol. XII, p. 461. 
 
 63. Propaganda Transcripts, Documento VI: La Sacra Congre- 
 gazionc ringrazia- il presidents del consiglio di Lione per aver, seoondo 
 il voto da lei espresso, destinata una soinma, d beneficio della diocesi di 
 Scio. Lugdunum, 28 Augusti, 1827. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 95 
 
 aere alieno, quo Cathedralis ecclesia ipsa opprimitur, videlicet 
 28,000 nummis argenteis Americanis, circiter 147,000 galli- 
 cana pecunia?" This quotation emphasizes the debt of the 
 New York Cathedral of $28,000 as the most urgent need of 
 all the Missions at this time. 64 
 
 The next communication between the Sacred Congregation 
 and the Society is that the Cardinal Prefect Cappellari (later 
 GTegory XVI) rejoiced in the fact that the Society had not 
 suffered losses from the Revolution in France. This is dated 
 November 27, 1830. 65 
 
 On June 2, 1832, the Sacred Congregation sent the list 
 of the new Bishops in missionary lands to the President of 
 the Council of Lyons asking that the sums appropriated for 
 each diocese be sent directly to them. The Society on 
 July 26, 1834, inquired from the Sacred Congregation the 
 method to be followed in sending subsidies; in this letter it 
 expressed some doubt concerning its relations with the 
 bishops and religious superiors. 67 The Sacred Congregation 
 in January, 1835, inquired from Father Michael Tecchinelli, 
 S. J., concerning the most needy Missions which should be 
 assisted by the money collected by the Society. 68 On February 
 
 64. Ut supra, Documento V: II Presidente del Contnglio Centrale 
 delta Francia meridionale della pia Opera domanda alia S. Congre- 
 gazione quali siano le Missioni pin bisognose di aiuto. Lugdunum 23 
 Februarii, 1828. 
 
 65. Ut supra: Documento VIII: II Card. Cappellari, Prefetto della 
 S. Congregaeionc di Propaganda si rallegra die pia Societa non abbia 
 sofffrto danni dalle rinnovate rivoluzioni. E. P. Pelagaud, Lugdunum 
 in Galiis Vol. 311, Fol. 100627 Novembris, 1830. 
 
 66. Ut supra, Documento X: La S. Congregazione di Propaganda 
 manda al presidente di Lione la nota dei nuovi Vcscovi dei luoghi di 
 Missione, ai quali dovranno direttamcnte essere inviate le allocasioni 
 stabilite per le singole missioni. 2 lunii 1832. (Arehivio della S. C. de 
 Prop. Fide, Letter e, Vol. 313, Fol. 513-v.) 
 
 67. Ut supra, Documento XI: L 'Opera pia intcrroga la 8. C. Con- 
 gregacione di Propaganda circa modo da tenersi nell'inviare i sussidi. 
 26 Luglio, 1834. (Vol. 315, Fol. 406-v.) 
 
 68. Ut supra, Documento XII: La 8. Congregazione di Propaganda 
 chiede il parere del P. Michele Tecchinelli della C. di G. ciii>a le missioni 
 piu bisognose da sussidiarso colle somme raccolte dall'Opera pia. 
 Gennaio, 1835 (Archivio della S. C. de Prop. Fide. Lettere della S. 
 C., Vol. 316, Fol. 88-v.) 
 
96 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 11, 1835, the President of the Society asked the views of Prop- 
 aganda concerning the use to be made of the interest on the 
 money of the Society and concerning the method of sending 
 subsidies. 09 On August the 6th, 1835, the Society expressed 
 its desire to work in concert with the Sacred Congregation in 
 respect to the subsidies that were to be sent to the various 
 Missions. It sent the list of the Missions that were to be 
 helped in order that it might be approved or modified. 70 On 
 November 28, 1835, the Sacred Congregation defended the 
 unity of the Society against the supposed tentatives for au- 
 tonomy of Switzerland in regard to paying out the sums col- 
 lected. Its decision was that the intentions of the donors 
 to apply the alms to the Foreign Missions across the sea was 
 binding in conscience. 71 
 
 On February 27, 1836, Gregory XVI g'rarited the request 
 for a part of the sums collected in Switzerland to be directly 
 used by the respective Ordinaries for the benefit of the Mis- 
 sions within that region. 72 On November 22, 1836, the Sacred 
 Congregation assured the Central Council of Lyons that the 
 Councils of the Society to be established in Home and in 
 Naples would be entirely subject to the Central Council. 71 
 
 
 69. Ut supra, Documento XIII: II Presidcnte dell'Opera pia diiede 
 alia S. S. Congregazione di Propaganda il parcre circa I'impiego 
 frutiifcro dei denari dell'Opera, e circa il modo d'inviare i sussidi. 
 Lione, 11 Febbraro, 1835 (Vol. 316, Fol. 105). 
 
 70. Ut supra, Documento XIV : L 'Opera Pia dichiara di volcr agir 
 di concerto con questa S. Congregazione in rapporto ai sussidi da 
 spedirsi slle varie missioni. Manda la nota dellc missioni da sussidiarsi 
 perclie la si approvi o la si modifichi. 6 Agosto, 1835. 
 
 71. Ut supra, Documento XV: La Sacra Congregazione difende 
 I'unita dell' opera contro supposti tentative di autonomia della Svizzera, 
 per quel die riguarda la erogazione dellc sortime raccolte, 28 Novembre, 
 1835 (Ibid., Fol. 806-v). 
 
 72. Ut supra, Documento XVII: Grcgorio XVI concede chc una par 
 parte delle sommc raccolte in Svizzera siano direttamcnte erogate dai 
 rispettivi Ordinari a beneficio delle missioni interne di qnella regione. 
 27 Fcbbraio, 1836 (Lettre della S. C., Vol. 317, Fol. 123). 
 
 73. Ut supra, Documento XVIII: La Sacra Congregazione assicura 
 il Consiglio centrale di Lione die i consigli dell'Opera pia da stabilirsi 
 a Eoma e a Napoli saranno pienamente soggetti al medesimo Consiglio 
 centrale. Li 22 Novembre, 1836 (Ibid., Fol. 867). 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 97 
 
 On January 24, 1837, Cardinal Brignole was nominated Presi- 
 dent of the Council of the Society that was to be established in 
 Rome. 74 
 
 On March 18, 1837, the Sacred Congregation of Propa- 
 ganda recommended that the Archbishop favor the founda- 
 tion in Naples of a Council of the Society for the Kingdom 
 of the two Sicilies which was to be subject to the Central 
 Council of Lyons. 7 " On April 10, 1837, the Government of 
 Naples expressed its desire that the Council of the Society 
 established in the Kingdom of Naples, correspond, not with 
 the Central Council of Lyons, but with the Council to be 
 established in Rome. 70 On May 2, 1837, the permission was 
 accorded to the Central Council of Naples to correspond 
 directly with Propaganda as well as with the Central Council 
 of the Society at Lyons. 77 On July 8, 1837, the Sacred Congre- 
 gation indicated to the Central Council of Lyons the African 
 Missions that were to be assisted. 78 On July 15, 1837, the 
 Sacred Congregation warmly recommended to the Bishop of 
 Ghent the spread of the Society in his diocese. 70 On January 
 30, 1838, the Sacred Congregation manifested to Cardinal 
 Brignole the desire of the Central Council of Lyons that the 
 Council of the Society established in Rome be made dependent 
 
 74. Ut supra, Documento XIX: II Card. Brignole vicnc nominate 
 prcsidentc del Consiglio Dell'Opera pia da stabilirsi in Eoma. Li 24 
 Gennato, 1837 (Lettere dclla S. C., Vol. 318, Fol. 46). 
 
 75. Ut supra, Documento XX: La S. Congregazione di Propaganda 
 raccomanda all'Archivescovo di favorire in Napoli di un Consiglio dcll- 
 'Opcra per il regno delle Due Sidle, il quale resti saggetto al Consiglio 
 di Lione. 18 Marzo, 1837 (Ibid., Fol. 238-v). 
 
 76. Ut supra, Documento XXI: II Governo di Napoli desidera che 
 il Consiglio della pia Opera da stabilirso nel Eegno corrisponda non col 
 Consiglio Centrale di Lione, ma con quello da stabilirsi in Eoma. Li 10 
 Aprile, 1837 (Ibid., Fol. 374-v). 
 
 77. Ut supra, Documento XXII: Si accorda al Consiglio di 
 Napoli di poter corrispondcre direttamentc con la Propaganda anziche 
 col centro dell'Opera a Lione. Li ii Maggio, 1837 (Ibid., Fol. 460-v). 
 
 78. Ut supra, Documento XXIII: La S. Congregazione di Propa- 
 ganda indica al Consiglio ccntrale di Lione le missioni di Affrica da sus- 
 sidiarsi. 8 Luglio, 1837 (Ibid., Fol. 580-v). 
 
 79. Ut supra, Documento XXIV: La S. Congrcgasionc raccomanda 
 caldamente al Vescovo di Gand la diffusions della pia Opera nella sua 
 diocesi. 15 lulii, 1837 (Ibid., Fol. 601). 
 
98 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 upon Lyons. 80 On July 26, 1838, the Sacred Congregation 
 defended the unity of the Society which was menaced by the 
 attempted separation of Bavaria, which would prefer to be 
 united to the Leopoldine Society of Vienna. 81 The ruling was 
 that Bishop Rese's claim to an authorization of the Sacred 
 Congregation to transfer funds of the Bavarian Society to 
 Vienna, and hence that they would no longer be sent to 
 France, was not valid; Rese had no authority to treat these 
 or other questions, hence the money would have to go to 
 Lyons. 
 
 On November 8, 1838, the Sacred Congregation expressed 
 its desire that the dioceses of Northern Italy continue to 
 correspond directly with the Council of Lyons. 82 On Decem- 
 ber 13, 1838, the Sacred Congregation asked the Council of 
 Lyons what regulations it believed to be opportune for the 
 preservation of unity between the newly established Roman 
 Association and the Central Council ; and asked if it did not 
 think it opportune to send the money collected in Rome 
 directly to the missions in order to avoid unnecessary losses 
 occasioned by the useless transfer and exchange of money. 83 
 On January 22, 1839, the Sacred Congregation endeavored 
 to prevent the organization of pious Societies different from 
 that of the Propagation of the Faith of Lyons in Belgium, 
 
 80. Ut supra, Documento XXV : La S. Congregazione manifesto, 
 al Card. Brignole il desiderio del Consiglio Centrale di Lione che il 
 Consiglio dell' Opera della Propagazione dclla Fede erctta in Eoma sia 
 posto sotto la dipendenza del medesimo. Li 30 Gennaro, 1838 (Lettere 
 della S. C., Vol. 319, Fol. 129). 
 
 81. Ut supra, Documento XXVII: La Sacra Congregazione difende 
 I'unita della Pia Opera della Propaga-zione della Fcde minacciata da 
 tentativi separastisti della Baviera die desidererebbc piuttusto di unirsi 
 alia Societa Leapoldina di Vienna. Li 26 Luglio, 1838 (Lettere della 
 S. C., Vol. 320, Fol. 724). 
 
 82. Ut supra, Documento XXVIII: La 8. Congregazione desidera 
 che le diocesi dell 'Altai Italia continuino a corrispondere direttamente 
 col Consiglio di Lione. Li 8 Novembre, 1838 (Ibid., Fol. 1301). 
 
 83. Ut supra, Documento XXVI: La S. Congregazione domanda al 
 Consiglio di Lione quali disposizione si credano piu opportune per 
 oondcrvare I'unita fra la neonata associazione romana ed il Consiglio 
 Centrale e se non crcda opportuno I'invio dirctto alle missioni dei fondi 
 raccolti in Eoma, per evitare perdite d'inutili passaggi di dcnaro e 
 relativi cambi. Li 13 Decembre, 1838 (Lettere della S. C., Vol. 320, Fol. 
 1379). 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 99 
 
 England and Bavaria in order that the unity and universality 
 of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith might not be 
 injured. 84 On February 5, 1839, after the Council of the 
 Society established in Ghent had refused to correspond with 
 the Council of Lyons, the Sacred Congregation wrote an 
 urgent appeal to the Bishop of Ghent, Louis Joseph Dele- 
 becque, insisting upon the unity of the Society which His 
 Holiness Gregory XVI had very much at heart. 85 On Novem- 
 ber 16, 1839, the King of Bavaria, after much hesitation, 
 agreed to the union of the Bavarian Council of the Society to 
 the Central Council of Lyons. 88 
 
 On July 14, 1840, the Holland branch of the Society 
 expressed its purpose to correspond directly with the Sacred 
 Congregation. 87 On February 25, 1841, the Sacred Congrega- 
 tion endeavored to reestablish the Superior Council of the 
 whole Society, by confiding its direction to Cardinal De 
 Bonald. 88 In the letter to Mgr. Garibaldi, Apostolic Nuncio 
 to- Paris, the reasons given for reestablishing this Superior 
 Council were that the two Councils of Lyons arid Paris might 
 not be in conflict; that greater unity might be attained, and 
 somewhat more deference paid to Propaganda 011 whom all 
 Missions depended. The selection of Cardinal De Bonald 
 was made in virtue of his high office, as a Cardinal, and it 
 was recalled that the Grand Chaplain of France, Cardinal de 
 
 84. Ut supra, Documento XXIX: La Sacra Congregazione cera 
 d'impedirc die in Belgio, Inghilterra, Baviera s'istituiscano pie opcre 
 diverse dalla Pia Opera dclla Propagazione della Fede di Lione die ne 
 compremettano I'unita el'universalita. Li 22 Gennaro, 1839. (Lettere 
 della S. C., Vol. 321). 
 
 85. Ut supra, Documento XXX: II Consiglio dclla Opera stabilito 
 in Gand si rifiuta di corrispondere col Consiglio di Lione. Die 5 Feb- 
 ruarii, 1839 (Ibid., Fol. 121). 
 
 86. Ut supra, Documento XXXII: II Ee di Bavicra, dopo molte 
 esitazioni annuisce alia unione del Consiglio bavarese per I'Opera Pia 
 della Propagazione della Fede al Consiglio Centrale di Lione. Die 16 
 Novembris, 1839 (Ibid., Fol. 1136). 
 
 87. Ut supra, Documento XXXIIbis: II ramo olandesc dell'Opera 
 Pia preferisce di corrispondere direttamente con la S. Congregazione di 
 Propaganda. 14 Luglio, 1840 (Lettere della S. C., Vol. 324, Fol. 638-v). 
 
 88. Ut supra, Documento XXXIIIbis : La S. . Congregazione si ad- 
 opera per ristabilire il Consiglio Superiore di tutta I'Opera, affidandone 
 la disrezione al Card. DC Bonald, 25 Ferraro, 1841 (Lettere della S. C., 
 Vol. 325, Fol. 146-v). 
 
100 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Croy, was its former President. On November 27, 1841, the 
 Sacred Congregation insisted that the Society as established 
 in Holland depend upon the Central Council of Lyons. 89 
 
 On December 11, 1841, the Sacred Congregation took up 
 again the project of reconstructing the Superior Council of 
 the whole Society and asked the Internuncio to remind the 
 Directors of the deference due to His Holiness." On January 
 22, 1842, the Sacred Congregation urged the Archbishop of 
 Salerno to preserve the unity of the Society. 91 On January 31, 
 1842, the Sacred Congregation recommended to the Arch- 
 bishop of Lima that the Society, instituted in his diocese to 
 aid the Missions, be joined to the Central Council of Lyons. 92 
 On July 2, 1842, the Council of the Society established in 
 South America demanded complete independence from the 
 Council of Lyons. 93 On August 3, 1844, a decree of the King 
 of Bavaria ordered that the Council of the work existing in 
 his States deal directly with Rome and have no further rela- 
 tion with the Central Council of Lyons. Another document 
 of the same date relates to the same question. 04 A decree of 
 the Sacred Congregation of August 3, 1844, made the Council 
 
 89. Ut supra, Documento XXXIV: La S. Congrcgazione insiste 
 perche il Cotisiglio dell'Opcra Pia costituitosi in Olanda entro in 
 corrispondenza col Consiglio Centralc di Lione. L'Aia, 27 Novembre, 
 
 1841 (Vol. 326, Fol. 1231). 
 
 90. Ut supra, Docwnento XXXV: Sul progctto della ricostruzione 
 del Consiglio Intcrnunzio Apostolico in Parigi. 11 Decembre, 1841 (Ibid., 
 Fol. 1324). 
 
 91. Ut supra, Documcnto XXXVIII: La Sacra Congrcgazione racco- 
 manda all' Archive scovo di Salerno I'unita della Pia Opera. 22 Geimaio, 
 
 1842 (Lettere della S. C., Vol. 327, Fol. 54-v). 
 
 92. Ut supra, Documento XXXIX: La Sacra Congregazione rac- 
 comanda att'Archivescovo di Lima die, istituita V Opera Pia a favore 
 delle missioni, sia aggregata al Consiglio Centrale di Lione. 31 Gennaro, 
 1842 (Ibid., Fol. 86-v). 
 
 93. Ut supra, Documento XXXVUs: I Consigli dell'Opcra Pia 
 della Propagazione della Fede stabiliti nell' America del Sud reclamano 
 una completa indipcndcnza dal ccntro di Lione. 2 Luglio, 1842 (Lettere, 
 Vol. 327, Fol. 533-v). 
 
 94. Ut supra, Documento XL: Un decreto del re di Baviera 
 stabilisce she il Consiglio dell 'Opera Pia esistentc nci suoi Stati se la 
 intenda direttamente con Eoma e non abbia piu alcuna rclazione col 
 centro di Lione. 3 Agosto 1844 (Lettere della S. C., Vol. 331) ; Docu- 
 mento XLI: Sul medcsimo argomento. 3 Agosto, 1844 (Ibid., Fol. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 101 
 
 established in Bavaria directly depend upon the Sacred Con- 
 gregation. 96 On November 13, 1844, the Sacred Congregation 
 lamented the character of complete independence from Rome 
 of the Central Council of the Society, a character which, it 
 felt, on account of national susceptibilities, imperilled the 
 unity of the same. 98 On May 13, 1848, Spain sent directly 
 to Rome the money collected in that kingdom for the Propa- 
 gation of the Faith. 97 On June 7, 1848, the Sacred Congrega- 
 tion begged the Internuncio to Bavaria to send to Rome 
 the remainder of the amount of the allocations made. 98 
 On September 20, 1848, the Sacred Congregation paid the 
 appropriations determined upon by the Council of Lyons with 
 the money collected by the Council of Rome. 99 On June 10, 
 1904, the Council of the Society in London decided to send 
 to Lyons, in the future, only one-tenth of the collections made 
 in England. 100 
 
 The projected general union of the Austrian Mission 
 Societies (the Societies of St. Peter Claver, of Mary, both of 
 which are for Africa ; the Leopoldiiie Society for North 
 America ; the Society of the Immaculate Conception and those 
 of the Holy Childhood and the Propagation of the Faith) 
 
 95. Ut supra, Documento XLII: II Consiglio della Pia Opera 
 stabilito in Baviera, passa alle dipendenze dirette dclla S. Congregazione. 
 3 Agosto, 1844 (Ibid., Fol. 500-v). 
 
 96. Ut supra, Documento XLIII: La Sacra Congregazione lamenta 
 il carattere di completa indipendenza da, Roma assunti dal Consiglio 
 Centrale dell'Opcra, carattere die unito alle susccttibilita nazwnali mette 
 in periculo I'unita della medesima. 13 Novembre, 1844 (Ibid., Fol. 
 819-v). 
 
 97. Ut supra, Documento XLIV : La Spagna invia direttamente a 
 Eoma la somma raccolta per la Propagazione della Fcde in quel regno. 
 13 Maggio, 1848 (Vol. 337, Fol. 343). 
 
 98. Ut supra, Documento XLV : La Sacra Congregazione prega 
 I'Intcrnunsio di Baviera di voler rimcttere a Eoma il sopravanzo delle 
 allocazioni fatte. 7 Guigno, 1848 (Ibid., Fol. 420-v). 
 
 99. Ut supra, Documento XLVI: La Sacra Congregazione di Propa- 
 ganda paga col denaro raccolto dal Consiglio di Eoma le allocazioni 
 stabilite dal Consiglio di Lione. 20 Scttembre, 1848 (Ibid., Fol. 694-v). 
 
 100. Ut supra, Documento LXIII: II Consiglio dell'Opcra della 
 Propagazione della Fede in Londra decide dinon piu rimettere a Lione 
 se non un decimo del prodotto delle collette fatte in Inghilterra. 10 
 Giugno, 1904. 
 
' 
 
 
 
 J i -i 1 . * * ' 
 
 102 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 were all involved in this tentative. 101 Finally, owing to the 
 growing demands in various parts of the world for a more 
 modern method of organization, a definitive basis for the 
 constitution of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith 
 in Spain is being planned, 102 and as Guasco has written: 
 "According to all the previsions, at the beginning of the 
 second century of its existence, the Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Faith is sure to suffer transformations in its 
 administration. Some national councils are in process of 
 formation. We have a First Pontifical Act constituting one 
 of these Councils ; in a decree of March 1, 1921, His Holiness 
 Pope Benedict XV, created at Rome a Central Council placed 
 directly under the dependence of the Sacred Congregation de 
 Propaganda Fide, for all the dioceses of Italy and charged 
 it with the duty of procuring a fuller development of the 
 Society in the Peninsula (Italy). What will be the relations 
 of this Council with those of Lyons and at Paris ? Will they 
 assist in an International Council at Rome or somewhere else 
 or will the ancient French Councils become simple interme- 
 diaries between the faithful and this International Council or 
 will they preserve their present character? Will the Sacred 
 Congregation take over the effective direction of the Society? 
 Will the American project for independence from the Coun- 
 cils -of Lyons and Paris succeed? These and many other 
 questions regarding the Society are yet to be solved." 
 
 The following indulgences have been granted to all mem- 
 bers of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith by the 
 Sovereign Pontiffs Pius VII, Leo XII, Pius VIII, Gregory 
 XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius X and Benedict XV. 
 
 The Plenary and Partial Indulgences may be gained by 
 all those who are Ordinary or Special Members of the Asso- 
 
 101. Ut supra, Documento LXVI: La progettata Unione Generate 
 delle Missioni Austriache. 
 
 102. Ut supra, Documento LXVII: Basi dedfinitive per la costitu- 
 zione delta Propagazione della Fede nella Spagna. 
 
 103. GUASCO, L'Oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, Un Siecle d' 
 Historic in the Correapondant, t. 284, p. 1030, Sept. 25, 1921. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 103 
 
 elation. By a decree dated May 25, 1885, His Holiness, Pope 
 Leo XIII, extended these privileges for life to those who fulfil 
 the conditions of life membership. 
 
 To gain the Plenary Indulgences, the usual conditions of 
 Confession, Communion, a visit to the parish church and 
 prayers for the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff are re- 
 quired. We may remark that a virtual intention suffices, and 
 that those who go to confession once a week (saltern semel 
 in hcbdomada) can gain all Plenary Indulgences occurring 
 in the interval between one Confession and another. Pope 
 Pius X removed the condition of weekly confession in favour 
 of those receiving Holy Communion daily or at least five or 
 six times a week. Consequently, priests who celebrate every 
 day may gain all these Indulgences, though they do not make 
 weekly Confession. These Plenary Indulgences can be gained 
 on the days mentioned once only at any hour from the First 
 Vespers, 2 p. m., of the eve of the Feast, to sunset on the 
 following day, or on any day of the octave, if there is an 
 octave; should these feasts be transferred by proper author- 
 ity, the Indulgences likewise accompany them and therefore, 
 may be gained on the same conditions. Members of religious 
 houses, convents, seminaries, colleges, etc., may visit the pri- 
 vate chapel of the establishment instead of the parish church. 
 
 Children who have not made their first communion can 
 gain them by performing some pious work appointed by their 
 confessor. 
 
 I. PLENARY INDULGENCES 
 
 May 3d Feast of the Finding of the Cross. The day on 
 which the Association was established. 
 
 December 3d Feast of St. Francis Xavier, the Patron 
 of the Association. 
 
 The Epiphany, the Annunciation, the Assumption, St. 
 Michael (September 29th). 
 
 On all Feasts of the Apostles. 
 
 Every Month On any two days chosen by the Associates. 
 
104 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Once a Year On the day of the general commemoration 
 of the deceased Members of the Committee or the Circle to 
 which one belongs. 
 
 On the Day of Admittance into the Association. 
 
 At the Hour of Death, by invoking, at least in the heart, 
 the Name of Jesus. 
 
 Members gain the favour of the privileged Altar for every 
 Mass said in the name of an Associate for a deceased Member. 
 
 II. PARTIAL INDULGENCES 
 
 Seven Years and Seven Quarantines every time an Asso- 
 ciate performs in aid of the Association any work of devotion 
 or charity. 
 
 Three hundred days every time an Associate assists at the 
 "Triduum" on May 3rd and December 3rd. 
 
 One hundred days every time an Associate recites the 
 "Our Father" and "Hail Mary," together with the invoca- 
 tion to St. Francis Xavier. 
 
 All these Indulgences, both Plenary and Partial, are ap- 
 plicable to the souls in purgatory. 104 
 
 III. SPECIAL FAVORS GRANTED TO ECCLESIASTICAL 
 BENEFACTORS 
 
 A To every Priest who shall be charged in any parish 
 or establishment to collect alms for the Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Faith, or who, either from his own resources, 
 or otherwise, shall contribute to the funds of the Society a 
 sum equal to the subscription of an entire band of ten: 
 
 1st. The favor of the privileged Altar three times a week. 
 
 2d. The power to apply the following Indulgences: 
 
 To the faithful at the hour of death, a Plenary Indulgence; 
 
 104. Spiritual Privileges Granted to the Association for the Propa- 
 gation of the Faith, pp. 25-27, London, 1916. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 105 
 
 to Beads or Rosaries, Crosses, Crucifixes, Pictures, Statues 
 and Medals, the Apostolic Indulgences ; to Beads, the Brigitine 
 Indulgences. 
 
 3d. The faculty of attaching to Crucifixes the Indulgences 
 of the Way of the Cross. 
 
 B (a) To every Priest who is a Diocesan Director, or a 
 Member of a Committee, appointed to watch over the inter- 
 ests of the Work : 
 
 (b) To every other Priest who in the course of the year 
 shall pay to the account of the Society a sum equal at least to 
 the amount of one thousand subscriptions ($600.00), from 
 whatever source derived : 
 
 1st. The same favors enjoyed by Priests in the preceding 
 category. 
 
 2d. The favor of the privileged Altar five times a week 
 personally. (Brief of Pius IX, December 31, 1853.) 
 
 3d. The power to bless Crosses with the Indulgences of 
 the Way of the Cross, and, moreover, the power to invest 
 with the Seraphic Cord and Scapular, and to impart all the 
 Indulgences and privileges granted to such investiture by the 
 Sovereign Pontiffs. 
 
 4th. The power to bless, and invest the faithful with, 
 the Scapular of Mt. Carmel, the Immaculate Conception, and 
 the Passion of Our Lord. 
 
 In case the collection of the special subscriptions should 
 be for the moment incomplete, His Holiness prolongs the 
 privileges of the Priest who shall have brought in the entire 
 amount the preceding year, up to the current account. 
 (Rescript of Leo XIII, June 16, 1878.) 
 
 C Every Priest who shall contribute once for all out 
 of his private resources, a sum representing the amount of 
 one thousand subscriptions ($600.00) shall enjoy, during his 
 life, the favors granted to the Priests who are Members of a 
 Committee. 
 
106 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 D On February 1, 1908, Pope Pius X has granted to 
 all Priests who are Diocesan or Parochial Directors, Perpetual 
 or Special Members of the Society, the faculty of applying 
 (unico crucis signo) the Crosier Indulgences to Rosaries (an 
 Indulgence of 500 days for each Our Father and Hail Mary ) . 
 
 IV. FEAST DAYS OF THE SOCIETY 
 
 In order to bring down the blessing of God on the Work 
 and on the Missions, the Society has selected, as times of 
 special prayer and Thanksgiving : 
 
 I. The third of May, feast of the Finding of the Holy 
 Cross, the anniversary of the foundation of the Society in 
 1822. 
 
 II. The third of December, feast of St. Francis Xavier, 
 patron of the Society. 108 
 
 The Feast of the Second Patron of the Society, St. 
 Exupere, was established in 1838. 106 
 
 A Society, such as the Propagation of the Faith, founded 
 and organized chiefly by laymen and laywomen, would nat- 
 urally attract the interest and the zeal of the laity throughout 
 the world. Hence, the historian has the pleasure of recording, 
 side-by-side with the cooperation of the Holy See and of the 
 Catholic Episcopate, the lay cooperation of the past hundred 
 years. 
 
 During the period of union and protectorate when the 
 civil power was united with the Church in its missionary en- 
 deavors and supported them with its budget, there was a strong 
 tradition among the crowned heads of Europe which caused 
 them to foster the Missions. But with the French Revolution 
 all this was changed. At the time of the foundation of this 
 Society in France, King Louis XVIII was apprised of its exis- 
 tence and appealed to by his Chaplain, Cardinal Prince de 
 Croy for his permission to arouse the interest of all the Bishops 
 
 105. FRERI, op. tit., pp. 18-19, 1912; ibid., pp. 59-60 in the Annals, 
 vol. LXXXV, 1922. 
 
 106. Annales, t. XI, pp. 168-182; 459-462. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 107 
 
 of his realm in favor of the spread of this Society/ 07 In the Car- 
 dinal's remarks to his sovereign he dwelt upon the traditions 
 of the illustrious Kings of France such as King St. Louis and 
 of Louis XIV, who had distinguished themselves by their 
 efforts to promote the Missions. The good will and financial 
 support of Louis XVIII was easily won for the Society ; not 
 only did the king contribute to the Society but he and the 
 royal family seemed ever willing to turn an attentive ear to 
 the requests of missionary bishops. For the United States 
 one striking instance of this liberality is found in providing 
 one of the ships of his royal navy, La Caravane, in which 
 Bishop Du Bourg brought to America many missionaries and 
 seminarians as well as many pious objects which he had col- 
 lected abroad. The successor of Louis XVIII, Charles X, 
 also manifested his good will towards the Society and wished 
 his name to be placed at the head of the subscription list. 108 
 In the New Orleans Cathedral were hung six religious paint- 
 ings which were gifts from the Kings of France. At the time 
 that Mt. St. Mary's Seminary and College was destroyed by 
 fire, a special gift of 3,000 francs from the King of France is 
 another evidence of his interest in the Missions. 109 
 
 The King of Sardinia also showed particular benevolence 
 and encouragement towards this Society as did also the King 
 of the two Sicilies. 110 But the characteristic of missionary 
 activity during the modern period is that it is carried on not 
 by the sovereigns or the great and powerful of the world. The 
 new plan of supporting the Missions by frequent small dona- 
 tions was both devised and carried into execution chiefly 
 through the efforts of the common people. Under these con- 
 ditions all that the Society asks and expects of any govern- 
 ment is a full measure of liberty in carrying on its work. 
 
 Perhaps the most conspicuous services rendered to the 
 Society by prominent laymen has been in the field of the 
 
 107. Annales, t. I, fasc. iii, p. 11; t. I, fasc. v, pp. 5-6. 
 
 108. GUASCO, op. tit., in the Correspondant, pp. 1010-1011: 
 ' ' Charles X declared himself its protector and made an offering to it. ' ' 
 
 109. Annales, t. I, fasc. v, p. 32. 
 
 110. Annales, t. I, fasc. v, pp. 30-40. 
 
108 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 administration of the Society and the editing of its various 
 publications. Frederic Ozanam, the illustrious founder of 
 the St. Vincent de Paul Society, was for some time the editor 
 of the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi. A list of the names 
 of the Directors of the two Councils of Lyons and Paris and 
 of the editors of the Annales and the Missions Catholiqucs 
 would contain a large number of names of persons prominent 
 not only by virtue of their birth and station but also distin- 
 guished for the services they have rendered to God, to their 
 Church, to their country and to their fellowman. One example 
 alone will suffice to illustrate this truth. The present General 
 Secretary of the Central Council of Paris, M. Alexandre 
 Guasco, in the year 1883, gave up a promising career as an 
 avocat to consecrate his life to the supervision of this 
 Council. Through his intense application and keen discern- 
 ment he has discovered the proportionate needs of each of 
 the hundreds of Missions aided by the Society each year, and 
 thus he has wisely directed the distribution of vast sums of 
 money to all the Missions of the world wherever and whenever 
 he believed it was needed most and could do the most good. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 109 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE GROWTH OF THE SOCIETY 
 
 In his Histoire Generate de la Societe des Missions fitran- 
 geres, Launay, with characteristic piety, has said that 
 societies such as the Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 are generally founded by the successive efforts of many minds 
 and many hearts, their birth is difficult and slow up to the 
 day when a ray of providential light passes over them and 
 makes them flower and bear fruit. 1 
 
 The Propagation of the Faith spread at first especially 
 in France with extreme rapidity. The ecclesiastical author- 
 ities of Rome and of France published mandates in its favor, 
 and designated priests to receive the collections. The pastors, 
 the assistants, and the clergy made themselves its ardent sup- 
 porters. The grandeur of the work was pleasing to all minds ; 
 the universality touched the hearts. The modesty of the alms 
 permitted the poor to join their contributions to those of 
 the rich. And so, the news of the Society's foundation came 
 to the Missions with that of its progress and was received 
 with gratitude. 
 
 What motives, we read in one of the early Annales, to 
 redouble one 's ardor and zeal in such a holy enterprise ! What 
 could be more consoling than the perspective of the immense 
 good to be produced for the salvation of souls by prayers so 
 short and by a contribution so modest ! And what one of the 
 faithful, in thinking of this small alms given each week, which 
 often goes more than a thousand leagues to aid in the conver- 
 sion of the soul for whom Jesus Christ died, would not feel 
 his heart thrill and his charity be inflamed! It has pleased 
 Providence to bless this generous Association and to multiply 
 
 1. LAUNAY, op. cit., t. II, p. 500. 
 
110 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 its members for the sanctification of the Christians who com- 
 pose it as well as for the conversion of those in whom it places 
 its interests. 2 
 
 The object of the Society could not long be confined within 
 the boundaries of a province, as Louvet has written. 8 A few 
 days after the first assembly, one of the members of the Cen- 
 tral Council of Lyons set out to arouse the ever-ardent charity 
 of the cities of the South of France. Diocesan committees 
 were formed at Avignon, Aix, Marseilles, Nimes, Montpelier, 
 Grenoble. The most eminent members of the clergy joined 
 with the most religious laymen, and the confident activity of 
 so many good men seemed already to give promise of great 
 success. Not long afterwards, one of the founders went to 
 Paris; through his efforts, a Superior Council as well as a 
 Diocesan Council were formed there, and, henceforth, the 
 Society embraced the whole nation. In the year 1823, a dele- 
 gate of the Council of Lyons, obtained papal approbation 
 together with the indulgences which enrich the Society in 
 perpetuity. 4 Then encouraging words came from almost all 
 the bishops of France. Thus the new institution, strength- 
 ened by the approbation of the Holy See, sure of its support, 
 sustained by its encouragements, crossed the frontiers of 
 France, and began the conquest of the world. The realm 
 of Piedmont was the first to welcome it. The King of Sar- 
 dinia inscribed his own name at the head of the list of sub- 
 scribers, and a committee was promptly established at Turin, 
 which soon made its activity felt in the Dioceses of Turin, 
 Chambery, Annecy, Nice, Pignerol, etc. 5 Then the different 
 countries in turn became interested in the Society. Belgium 
 did not long delay her entrance into the work and began her 
 magnificent annual liberalities by a donation of 497 francs 
 in 1825. Italy began in 1827 with a contribution of 288 
 francs. Next came Germany with her donation of 358 francs. 
 In the same year, Switzerland gave 896 francs. The British 
 
 2. Annales, t. I, fasc. pp. 3-6. 
 
 3. LOUVET, op. cit., p. 2a; Annales, t. II, pp. 79-82. 
 
 4. Annales, t. I, fasc. p. 4. 
 
 5. Annales, t. V, p. 31. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 111 
 
 Isles began their regular contributions in 1836. Portugal and 
 Holland came next in 1837. In 1839, the United States, Spain 
 and Austria sent in their first donations. In 1840, South 
 America began its contributions. 6 By this time 300 bishops 
 had raised their voices in its favor. Finally, as we have said, 
 Pope Gregory XVI, by the Encyclical Letter of 1840, placed 
 the Society in the rank of Institutions common to Christen- 
 dom. 7 
 
 It was during these latter years that the Bishop Flaget 
 went to Europe and undertook the memorable voyage which 
 permitted half of France to- see and hear the envoy of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff, preaching his holy crusade of prayers and 
 alms. Flaget had passed more than forty years in the Mis- 
 sions; he knew the innumerable needs of the churches; he 
 was able to appreciate the services which the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Faith had already rendered, and the let- 
 ters which the associates of the Society had received from 
 him were all filled with testimonies of his lively gratitude. 
 He had been in Europe for one year and his reputation had 
 already attained great prominence. Each of his acts, each 
 of his words, was clothed with authority. It would have been 
 difficult to have found a preacher better fitted to recommend 
 the society which embraced, in its solicitude, all the Missions 
 of the two worlds. The men who, with the assent of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff, directed his excellent Society, hastened to 
 claim the cooperation of this venerable bishop. They profited 
 by his stay in Rome to address a humble appeal to the Pope, 
 and this appeal met with complete success. Gregory XVI had 
 more than once given to the Society the most flattering marks 
 of his paternal esteem. He understood the intentions of the 
 Bishop of Bardstown, and Flaget himself penetrated the heart 
 of the Pontiff, and found there the will to second his own 
 views. Returning to France, Bishop Flaget, with the sim- 
 
 6. GUASCO, op. cit., in the Correspondant, t. 284, p. 1022, Sept. 25, 
 1921. 
 
 7. Annales,-*-. XLIV, p. 162. 
 
112 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 plicity of a child and his customary devotion, placed him- 
 self at the disposal of those who had claimed his services. 8 
 
 In a first journey through France the American prelate 
 visited twelve dioceses: Le Puy, Clermont, Moulins, Nevers, 
 Bourges, Limoges, Tulle, Cahors, Montauban, Rodez, Albi and 
 Saint-Flour. Then his failing health obliged him to seek repose 
 in his own family circle. Having returned to Clermont on the 
 20th of March, 1838, he departed on June 6, and visited 
 Valence, Viviers, Montpelier, Toulouse, Auch, Aire, Bayonne, 
 Tarbes, Pamiers, Perpignan, Carcassonne, Nimes, Avignon, 
 Aix, Marseilles, Frejus, Digne and Gap eighteen dioceses in 
 all. He returned to Lyons on October 6, and after a repose 
 of some few days, again set out on the 29th of the same 
 month. This time he was to visit Grenoble, Belley, Autun, 
 Saint-Claude, Besangon, Annecy, Saint Jean de Maurienne, 
 Turin, Asti, Alexandrie, Genoa, Savona, Albenga, Vintemille, 
 Nice and Chambery. 
 
 It was proposed to Bishop Flaget to visit the North of 
 France, but, for reasons which we shall shortly explain, he 
 was obliged to limit his journeys. After all, to travel through 
 forty-six dioceses, notwithstanding the burden of seventy-five 
 years, was rather a test for the strength of a venerable man. 
 In the beginning, he visited in each of the dioceses, six, eight, 
 ten or fifteen parishes, preaching everywhere, and complying 
 with the desires of seminaries and religious communities to 
 hear him, such was his zeal that his time and strength were 
 matters of secondary importance. In most of the dioceses, 
 especially in France, he continued to visit the principal cities 
 and their institutions. Continually preaching and traveling, 
 great fatigue finally overtook the good bishop ; but it became 
 sweet in his eyes when he recalled the origin of his mission, 
 for he was working under the obedience to the Pope. 
 , However, it is impossible to sketch in detail the great 
 results of his journeys. Crowds gathered, wherever he went. 
 All wished to see and to hear him. His speech, however, was 
 
 8. DESGEORGE, Mgr. Flaget, Eveque de Bardstown et Louisville, pp. 
 115, et seq., Paris, 1855. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 113 
 
 simple and familiar ; but the saintly old man could not appear 
 in a pulpit without preaching a sermon by his simple pres- 
 ence alone. His visits were like a continual mission. No one 
 could estimate the services he rendered to the Society. Today 
 his name is held in veneration by its members, as he said so 
 often from the pulpit: " Everyone admires this mite of the 
 poor, this cent each week, which after having received from 
 God the power of miracles, goes across the seas to pay the 
 ransom of captives, to furnish traveling expenses to the mis- 
 sionaries, to build churches, to found seminaries, and to pro- 
 duce other marvels which permit the infant and the aged, 
 the infirm and the unfortunate, to believe themselves to be 
 apostles, for all this good is the work of their faith and of 
 their charity." At the moment when Bishop Flaget began 
 his visitation, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 was far less known than it is today. Some, indeed, were 
 asking if the alms which came into its treasury always went 
 to the destination publicly announced. Others still enter- 
 tained doubts whether the extent of the distress which ham- 
 pered the Missions overseas, was as great as was pictured. 
 But all these uncertainties were soon removed, and it is to 
 Bishop Flaget 's eternal credit that he helped to dispel these 
 doubts. Everywhere the faithful became interested in a 
 Society which had already been so fruitful and which was 
 called to still greater things. 9 
 
 Soon its work was established upon a larger and more 
 solid basis, and every one considered it an honor to offer his 
 humble tribute of prayers and alms to the work. In some 
 cities its progress surpassed all hopes, to such an extent that 
 the Bishop of Bardstown, passing through Montpelier two 
 months after his first meeting, had the happiness of finding 
 there a thousand more Associates. 
 
 9. PIOLET, La France au Dehors, Les Missions Catholiques Fran- 
 gaises au XIX Sieclc, Paris, 1900. At Turin the King Charles Albert 
 wished to receive him at his table. A letter from Ct. Vt. Gaitter, dated 
 Paris 22 Juillet 1835, describes Flaget 's audience with the King and 
 Queen of France. This letter was found in the Archives of Saint 
 Sulpice, Paris. 
 
114 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 The immense good which Bishop Flaget was thus able to 
 accomplish for the Society, as well as the religious devotion 
 which he stimulated in Europe, was but one aspect of his 
 saintly life. 10 
 
 Benedict Joseph Flaget was born at St. Julien, France, 
 November 7, 1763. He was the youngest of three sons. At 
 the age of two, he was left an orphan, and a pious aunt took 
 care of him and his brothers, devoting herself assiduously to 
 bringing them up piously, bestowing on them the blessing of 
 a Christian education. He attended the college and later the 
 seminary at Clermont, the latter being then in charge of the 
 Sulpicians. He joined the Congregation of St. Sulpice and 
 after his ordination to the priesthood, he was sent to the 
 Seminary at Nantes, and later to that at Angers, in the 
 capacity of professor of theology. When the French Revolu- 
 tion broke out, it threatened to bring about the utter destruc- 
 tion of religion, and the clergy, both regular and secular, 
 were openly persecuted. Those who had the courage, as almost 
 all of them had, to refuse the odious Constitutional Oath were 
 ruthlessly massacred or forced to fly for their lives. Father 
 Flaget, acting under the advice of his superiors resolved to 
 devote his life to the American Missions and embarked for 
 America towards the close of the year 1791. In the fall of 
 1792 Father Flaget was sent by Bishop Carroll to Vincennes. 
 There he labored with indefatigable zeal for more than two 
 years. His zeal soon operated a thorough change in the relig- 
 ious aspect of the town. Toward the close of the year 1794, 
 Father Flaget was recalled to the East by Bishop Carroll and 
 placed on the staff of Georgetown College. His superiors, 
 however, appointed him to the Island of Cuba with a view to 
 establishing there a college and a seminary. About the year 
 1801, Father Flaget was recalled to Baltimore, to take a 
 professorship in St. Mary's College. He continued in this 
 situation for nine or ten years until he was elevated to the 
 See of Bardstowii. He arrived at Bardstown in June, 1811, 
 
 10. HERBERMANN, The Sulpicians in the United States, p. 157, New 
 York 1916; Cf. BERTRAND, Billiotheque Sulpicicnne, p. 182, Paris." 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 115 
 
 remaining there until 1841, when the Holy See transferred 
 his See to Louisville. There he remained until his death in 
 1850. For more than half a century the story of his life 
 forms an integral and a very important part of that of the 
 Catholic Church in the United States, of which he was so 
 conspicuous an ornament. "His episcopacy stretches through 
 a much larger period than that of any other American pre- 
 late; and he has justly merited the title awarded to him by 
 general consent of 'Patriarch of the American Hierarchy.' 
 A prominent trait in the character of Bishop Flaget was his 
 zeal for the salvation of souls. To secure this object, he spared 
 uo labor and was ready 'to spend and to be spent.' This 
 was the subject upon which he most delighted to address his 
 clergy, in his soul-stirring appeals replete with unction, which 
 all well remember. This was the engrossing thought which 
 supported him amongst the multiplied and protracted hard- 
 ships of his episcopal career; which urged him on from one 
 extremity to the other of his vast diocese ; embracing for 
 many years, the entire West and Northwest from the 34th 
 degree of north latitude to the Lakes; a territory now com- 
 prising ten flourishing dioceses. To save a soul redeemed by 
 Jesus Christ, or to prevent the commission of a single mortal 
 sin, he deemed an object worthy of every privation and suffer- 
 ing, even unto the endangering sacrifice of life itself. The 
 spiritual welfare and salvation of his flock engaged his anxious 
 attention by day and often flitted across his mind in the 
 visions of the night. This was a favorite subject of his con- 
 versation with his friends and it was that for which he prayed 
 most frequently and most fervently, especially at the holy 
 altar." 11 
 
 To Bishop Flaget, therefore, goes the credit of having 
 accomplished more than any single prelate for the growth 
 and development of the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith. His activity in its behalf in France, during that early 
 epoch of its existence, when French prelates themselves failed 
 
 11. The Metropolitan Catholic Almanac and Laity's Directory 1851, 
 pp. 50-61. 
 
116 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 to realize the immense possibilities of such an organization 
 with its universal appeal and its universal power for good, 
 has placed him almost in the ranks of its founders. 
 
 After a century of existence the Society can boast of a 
 development second to none among the Catholic institutions 
 which make an appeal to the faithful of the world for the 
 sake of the Gospel. France has always held the place of 
 honor in the total contributions. Germany, Italy, Belgium, 
 Great Britain, Switzerland and all the nations of Europe, 
 even unfortunate Poland, are found on its lists. North 
 and South America, Africa, the infant Churches of Asia and 
 of Oceania also sent in their modest tribute of their neophytes. 
 In a word, all the children of the Church are thus united 
 in the Apostolate and cooperate by their offering in the prop- 
 agation of the Gospel. 12 
 
 We have} now to see in a graphic way the scale of these 
 contributions during the past century (1822-1918) : 
 
 RECEIPTS OF THE SOCIETY FOE THE PROPAGATION 
 
 OF THE FAITH 
 From Its Foundation until 1918, Inclusive 
 
 Total Receipts: 450,846,600 fr. 
 Of This Sum the Following Countries Have Contributed 
 
 France 278,022,485 fr. 
 
 United States 32,305,473 
 
 Italy 30,783,713 
 
 Germany 25,487,346 
 
 Belgium 23,582,361 
 
 Great Britain 15,013,707 
 
 Holland 
 
 Spain 
 
 Switzerland 
 
 Argentine Republic 
 
 Mexico 
 
 Canada 
 
 Portugal 
 
 Austria 
 
 Africa 
 
 Chile 
 
 Malta and Gozzo . . 
 Luxemburg 
 
 5,946,306 
 5,678,348 
 5,670,413 
 4,629,811 
 3,653,795 
 3,074,654 
 2,644,862 
 2,358,600 
 2,120,990 
 1,751,459 
 1,532,266 
 1,336,510 
 
 12. LOUVET, op. cit. y p. 3a, 1894. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 117 
 
 Central America . . , 
 
 Oceania , 
 
 Asia 
 
 Uruguay 
 
 Brazil 
 
 Peru 
 
 Turkey in Europe . 
 Russia and Poland , 
 
 Hungary 
 
 Scandinavian States 
 
 Greece , 
 
 Colombia 
 
 Venezuela , 
 
 Monaco 
 
 Guiana , 
 
 Ecuador , 
 
 Bolivia , 
 
 Paraguay 
 
 R/oumania 
 
 Bulgaria 
 
 1,045,793 fr. 
 855,379 " 
 759,412 " 
 526,566 " 
 498,489 " 
 271,126 " 
 261,060 
 204,905 
 176,157 
 154,174 
 129,825 
 
 80,181 
 
 68,371 
 
 61,066 
 
 52,034 
 
 48,660 
 
 32,181 
 
 12,461 
 8,079 
 3,540 
 
 Arranged by periods of ten years the figures of the receipts 
 of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, are indicative 
 of the Society's growth. In the following table it will be 
 seen that the Society has not ceased to progress although this 
 rate of increase had diminished in a notable manner from 
 1872 to 1891 : 
 
 From 1822 to 1831 S.P.F. Reed. 1,807,091 fr. 
 
 1832 " 
 1842 " 
 1852 " 
 1862 " 
 
 1872 " 
 1882 " 
 1892 " 
 
 1841 
 1851 
 1861 
 1871 
 
 1881 
 1891 
 1901 
 
 11,732,983 
 33,446,335 
 45,516,139 
 49,780,830 
 60,033,164 
 66,030,291 
 66,832,650 
 
 Increase 9,925,791 fr. 
 21,713,351 " 
 12,069,803 < 
 4,264,701 < 
 10,252,333 < 
 5,997,127 < 
 802,359 < 
 
 The two periods from 1862 to 1871 and from 1882 to 1891 
 during which the growth of the Society slackened consider- 
 ably, correspond to the creation of Peter's Pence and to the 
 religious crises of the Church of France, during which time 
 the charity of the faithful was solicited for the works of local 
 interest. The practical disappearance of this increase during 
 the period between 1892 and 1901 was due chiefly to the 
 marked financial depression which affected Europe as well as 
 America. In 1906 came the separation of the Church and 
 State in France, and hence local charities made incessant 
 demands upon the charity of the faithful. During the last 
 
118 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 period' from 1912 to 1921 the World War could not fail to 
 have a detrimental influence upon the offerings made to the 
 Society. 
 
 It will not be without interest to see exactly what part 
 each of the Catholic nations has taken in the contributions 
 made to the total budget of the Apostolate. There are, in this 
 detailed resume of the Society, encouragements for some 
 nations, regrets for others and lessons for all. 
 
 From 1822 to 1831 France Gave 
 
 " 1832 " 1841 " 
 
 1851 " 
 
 1861 " 
 
 1871 " 
 
 1881 " 
 
 1891 " 
 
 " 1842 " 
 
 " 1852 (t 
 
 11 1862 " 
 
 1872 " 
 
 " 1882 " 
 
 I. FRANCE 
 
 
 
 (1822-1892) 
 
 
 
 }ave 1,764,696 fr. 
 
 
 
 8,025,928 " 
 
 Increase 
 
 6,261,221 fr. 
 
 19,064,863 " 
 
 t ( 
 
 11,038,834 " 
 
 27,833,660 " 
 
 tt 
 
 8,768,797 " 
 
 34,501,034 " 
 
 i i 
 
 6,667,374 " 
 
 40,549,771 " 
 
 ft 
 
 6,048,736 " 
 
 42,331,209 " 
 
 tt 
 
 1,781,438 " 
 
 It is evident that Catholic France, the birthplace of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Faith, has made it a point 
 of honor to guard her rank of eldest daughter of the Church 
 since she alone has always furnished two-thirds of the budget 
 of the Apostolate. Since 1822, the date of its foundation, the 
 Society has not ceased to make progress in France, even after 
 the loss of the two dioceses of Alsace and Lorraine, or even 
 during the ten years between 1882 and 1891 when the Church 
 in France was crippled. 
 
 II. ITALY 
 
 (1827-1892) 
 
 From 1827 to 1831 Italy Gave 1,128 fr. 
 
 1832 " 1841 " 1,268,233 
 
 1851 " 5,460,396 " 
 
 1861 " 5,687,035 " 
 
 1871 " 3,918,759 " 
 
 1881 " 3,227,920 " 
 
 1891 " 3,912,589 " 
 
 Italy ranks second, after France; at the beginning, Italy 
 made a splendid showing and seemed to promise much for the 
 
 1832 " 
 1842 " 
 1852 " 
 1862 " 
 1872 " 
 1882 " 
 
 Increase 1,267,105 fr. 
 
 " 4,192,162 " 
 
 " 226,639 " 
 
 Decrease 1,768,276 " 
 
 " 690,388 " 
 
 Increase 684,669 " 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 119 
 
 future. But since 1860, the political revolutions of which it 
 has been the theatre have produced a decrease. After having 
 attained in 1858 the figure of 844,447 francs, Italy fell in 
 1891 to about 350,000 francs. In 1891, there were about 
 150,000 Associates in Italy. 
 
 III. GERMANY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 
 (1827-1892) 
 
 From 1827 to 1831 Germany Gave 5,125 fr. 
 
 " 1832 " 1841 " " 779,014 " Increase 773,888 fr. 
 
 " 1842 " 1851 " " 2,554,560 " " 1,775,546 " 
 
 " 1852 " 1861 " " 2,713,889 " " 159,328 " 
 
 " 1862 " 1871 " 2,458,734 " Decrease 255,155 " 
 
 " 1872 " 1881 " " 6,153,431 Increase 3,694,697 " 
 
 " 1882 " 1891 " " 7,472,606 " " 1,319,174 " 
 
 The different states of Germany were backward in joining 
 the work, but after 1870, the increase is apparent. In the 
 beginning Austria wished to form a group apart, and on 
 April 15, 1829, it instituted, as we have seen, the Leopoldine 
 Society, organized, like the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith, into groups of ten, the average of its annual receipt 
 before 1890 amounted to about 40,000 florins (100,000 fr.), 
 which were applied exclusively to the German Missions of the 
 United States. A few years later Bavaria followed this ex- 
 ample. It had, however, commenced well and from 1843 the 
 receipts of the Propagation of the Faith reached 232,748 fr. 
 That year, according to the order of its Prince, it retired from 
 the Society so that it too might found its local Society. 
 
 For a long time Prussia and the Protestant States of 
 Germany were the only ones to support the great French 
 Society. There was even a slight decrease from 1862 to 
 1871 ; but after this period the receipts grew in rapid pro- 
 portion and neither the violences of Kulturkampf nor the 
 numerous societies in Germany which made demands upon the 
 charity of Catholics, have been able to affect the movement in 
 favor of the Society. It is but just to mention that the annex- 
 ation of the two dioceses of Metz and of Strasbourg have 
 been the means of including in the receipt of Germany up 
 
120 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 to 1891 an annual average of 300,000 fr. In 1891 the sub- 
 scriptions from Germany and Austria-Hungary represented 
 about 270,000 subscribers or Associates. 
 
 IV. BELGIUM 
 
 (1825-1892) 
 From 1825 to 1831 Belgium Gave 32,042 fr. 
 
 1832 " 
 1842 " 
 1852 " 
 1862 " 
 
 1872 " 
 1882 " 
 
 1841 
 1851 
 1861 
 1871 
 
 1881 
 1891 
 
 715,678 
 1,751,426 " 
 2,511,104 " 
 3,007,008 " 
 3,621,890 " 
 3,640,949 " 
 
 Increase 
 n 
 
 638,636 fr. 
 
 1,035,747 
 
 759,678 
 
 495,903 
 
 614,881 
 
 19,059 
 
 In proportion to the number of its inhabitants, Belgium 
 ranked immediately after France. In 1891, out of 35,000,000 
 Catholics, France gave 4,200,000 fr. or 0.12 centimes per 
 person. Belgium out of 5,500,000 Catholics, gave 330,000 
 fr. or 0.06 centimes per inhabitant. No other Catholic 
 State has so high a proportion. Since 1825, the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Faith has increased its progress in 
 Belgium, although the rate has been slow. From 1880 to 
 1890 this progress was almost stationary. 
 
 V. GREAT BRITAIN 
 (1833-1892) 
 
 From 1833 to 1841 G. B. Gave 562,885 fr. 
 
 1842 " 
 1852 " 
 1862 " 
 1872 " 
 1882 " 
 
 1851 
 1861 
 1871 
 
 1881 
 1891 
 
 1,768,144 
 2,420,456 
 1,596,066 
 1,698,479 
 1,722,905 
 
 ' Increase 
 
 ( tt 
 
 1 Decrease 
 
 ' Increase 
 
 i i ( 
 
 1,205,259 fr. 
 652,311 " 
 824,389 " 
 102,413 " 
 24,425 " 
 
 In 1833, Great Britain, entered for the first time into the 
 receipts of the Propagation of the Faith with the modest 
 offering of 51 fr., but the movement rapidly took possession 
 and in 1858 Great Britain reached the figure of 545,923 fr. 
 This figure, however, it never again reached until 1891. After 
 the year 1860, a decrease continued to make itself felt and the 
 annual average was lowered 150,000 fr. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 121 
 
 ave 9,291 fr. 
 573,115 " 
 1,851,615 " 
 1,451,713 " 
 1,253,791 " 
 2,635,960 " 
 
 Increase 
 tt 
 
 Decrease 
 
 
 Increase 
 
 563,823 fr. 
 1,278,500 " 
 399,901 " 
 197,922 " 
 1,382,168 " 
 
 VI. NORTH AMERICA 
 (1833-1892) 
 
 From 1833 to 1841 N. A. Gave 
 " 1842 " 1851 " 
 " 1852 " 1861 " 
 " 1862 " 1871 " 
 
 11 1872 1881 " 
 " 1882 " 1891 " 
 
 North America includes the Dominion of Canada, the 
 United States, Mexico and the Antilles. It was only after 
 1840 that Canada and the United States entered into the 
 Propagation of the Faith. During a long time the largest 
 offerings came from Canada. Mexico seemed to be ignorant 
 of the existence of the Society and the United States was 
 only acquainted with it through the abundant assistance 
 which it received from the Society to organize its young 
 churches. Nevertheless, the receipts showed a continuous and 
 progressive increase until about 1860. Little by little Canada 
 withdrew from the Society to devote itself exclusively to its 
 own Missions. The United States remained stationary, re- 
 serving all of its resources for the development of local works. 
 Mexico began to be seriously interested in the Society when 
 delegates went there in 1889, to make it known and under- 
 stood. It has been the same in Cuba and in the West Indies, 
 and in all the Latin countries. 
 
 The contributions of North America in 1891 was as 
 follows : 
 
 Dominion of Canada 21,457 fr. 
 
 United States 201,519 fr. 
 
 Mexico 334,880 f r. 
 
 Antilles 23,592 f r. 
 
 Total 581,499 fr. 18 
 
 In the first seventy years, the United States received from 
 the Society 28,364,725 fr., and in 1918, the contributions from 
 the United States for the first time equalled the total it 
 received from the Society. 
 
 13. Ut supra, pp. 3a-8a, Louvet has compiled these statistics from 
 the Compte Eendu in the Annales. 
 
122 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Of the total collections, $100,341,625.33, the United States 
 contributed $10,983,452.06. In 1920, the total receipts were 
 $3,414,647, of which $1,622,569 were offerings from American 
 Catholics. 14 
 
 For a long time the Central Councils of the Society sought 
 to develop their work in the United States and many Arch- 
 bishops and Bishops of America encouraged them to do so. 
 On March 12, 1891, they asked the Very Rev. Father 
 Chevalier, to take up the work. The real beginning of the 
 growth of the Society in the United States came as a result 
 of the action taken by the Fathers of the Third Plenary Coun- 
 cil of Baltimore, in 1884. When the Council of Baltimore 
 convened, the Society had given more than 22,000,000 fr. 
 and had only received 3,000,000 f r., in return. At this Council 
 the cause of the Society was upheld, and it was decided that 
 a collection should be made each year in all the Churches 
 in the United States, part of which would be reserved to the 
 Negro and Indian Missions and part to the Propaga- 
 tion of the Faith. But progress was slow at first, and in 
 1891, Father Chevalier had to resign from the work of mak- 
 ing the Society known in the United States. 15 
 
 On October 20, 1891, the President of the Council of 
 Paris, M. Hamel, wrote to Cardinal Gibbons, petitioning him 
 to make an appeal to the Archbishops of the United States 
 in favor of the Society. A few weeks later at an assembly 
 of the Archbishops of the United States, Archbishop Chapelle 
 received a letter from Cardinal Gibbons asking him to sup- 
 port the request of the Council before the Archbishops who 
 met at St. Louis at the end of November. On April 13, 1892, 
 Cardinal Gibbons informed the Council that he had spoken 
 to the Archbishops of the United States assembled at St. Louis 
 in the interest of the Society. His letter was full of senti- 
 ments of benevolence and sympathy for the Society. 
 
 14. Cf. Statistics of the total contributions in the Appendix of this 
 work. 
 
 15. GUASCO, Note sur les Origines de la Delegation de I'Oeuvre 
 de la Propagation de la Foi, specially compiled at my request; ANDRE, 
 Amerique (Etats Unis d') Catholicisme, in VACANT, Distionnaire de 
 Theologie Catholique, p. 1073. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 123 
 
 During the summer of 1892, Mgr. Ireland, while visiting 
 Paris, was consulted by M. Guasco. The Archbishop of St. 
 Paul immediately took an interest in the project and suggested 
 that the Council address the Sulpicians of Baltimore to find 
 a representative for the work. Meanwhile the World's Fair 
 was about to open in Chicago, and the Council decided to 
 participate in the exposition with its publications in different 
 languages and its maps. Father Durin, of West de Pere, 
 Wisconsin, was appointed to represent the Society at Chicago 
 as a delegate of the Council during the time of the exposition. 
 The President of the Council of Paris made a proposal to the 
 Superior General of St. Sulpice on a subject of the action 
 which the Society proposed to begin in the United States and 
 received a favorable answer. In the meeting of May 8, 1896, 
 the President announced to the Central Council of Paris that 
 the Superior-General of the priests of St. Sulpice had left 
 for the United States, provided with/ a letter signed by the 
 President in the name of the Council, appointing him to come 
 to an understanding with Cardinal Gibbons in order that the 
 priests of St. Sulpice be empowered to promote the Society 
 of the Propagation of the Faith in the United States, as dele- 
 gates of the Council. On November 1, 1896, His Eminence 
 Cardinal Gibbons addressed to the President of the Council a 
 letter in which he evinced the favorable disposition which the 
 American Archbishops had manifested in their annual meet- 
 ing.; they approved without reservation that a priest of St. 
 Sulpice be the delegate of the Central Council. The Arch- 
 bishops were all of the opinion that the Seminary of St. 
 Sulpice, called St. Mary's, at Baltimore, should be the 
 center of the Society in the United States. Father Mag- 
 men accepted, but being unable to devote himself to the details 
 of the administration of the Society, took as an Associate, 
 Father Granjon. When Father Granjon became Bishop of 
 Tucson, Father Magnien appointed Mgr. Freri as a successor. 
 At the end of 1903, on the proposal of Mgr. Freri and after 
 the approval of His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, the transfer 
 of the center of the Society from Baltimore to New York was 
 decided. 
 
124 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons' letter of November 1, 1896, reads as 
 follows : 
 
 I am quite late in replying to the letter which you have kindly sent 
 me by the Superior General of St. Sulpice. I pray you to believe that 
 it is due neither to forgetfulness nor negligence on my part. The Society 
 for the Propagation of the Faith has shown itself in the past and still 
 shows itself so generous with regard to the missions of the United 
 States that it is for us not less a duty than a pleasure to endorse your 
 noble designs to give to this admirable Society all the extension it can 
 require. In the annual meeting of the American Archbishops which 
 recently took place at Washington I submitted to my venerable col- 
 leagues your wishes and your proposals. I am happy to announce to 
 you that they all accepted them with eagerness: they have approved 
 without any restriction that a priest of St. Sulpice should here be the 
 delegate of your Central Council. The members of this Society direct 
 three very important seminaries and could have much influence over 
 the clergy. We were all of the opinion that the Seminary of St. 
 Sulpice, otherwise called St. Mary's, at Baltimore, should be the center 
 of the Society in this country and we leave to the intelligence and to 
 the zeal of him who shall be chosen by your delegate, the details of the 
 organization and the determination of the means to be taken to develop 
 the Society. The Superior General of St. Sulpice, during his visit at 
 Baltimore, spoke to me of the Society in very sympathetic terms and 
 said that he would do all in his power to give to that one of his confreres 
 who shall be chosen the means to accomplish his work for the greater 
 glory of God, and in relation to the needs of the missions. I am sure 
 that the Bishops animated with the same dispositions as their Metro- 
 politan will favor the extension of the Society in their dioceses. 16 
 
 The Society was incorporated under the laws of the State 
 of Maryland with the following directors : 
 
 His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore. 
 Most Reverend M. A. Corrigan, Archbishop of New York. 
 Most Reverend W. H. Elder, Archbishop of Cincinnati. 
 Most Reverend P. J. Ryan, Archbishop of Philadelphia. 
 Most Reverend J. Ireland, Archbishop of St. Paul. 
 Very Reverend A. Magnien, SS, D. D., President, St. Mary's 
 Seminary. 
 
 Reverend G. W. Devine. 
 Reverend C. B. Corrigan. 
 Reverend T. J. Broderick. 
 Reverend C. F. Thomas." 
 
 16. A copy of this letter was sent to me by M. Guaseo.- 
 
 17. FRERI, op. cit., p. 13, 1900. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 125 
 
 On July 13, 1900,. the President of the Central Council of 
 Paris, wrote to Father Magnien as follows : 
 
 I have the honor to acknowledge the receiption of your letter of 
 June 21 informing us that Mgr. Granjon, Bishop of Tucson, until this 
 time charged with the Society of the Propagation of the Faith in the 
 United States, has departed for his diocese. We have expressed to 
 Mgr. Granjon all our gratitude for the zeal with which he was willing to 
 work for the development of so important a Society and one now more 
 useful than ever. The Council with all its heart reaffirms the praises which 
 you have spoken of the truly admirable activity which he has directed 
 with remarkable intelligence of the needs of the Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Faith, a perfect prudence, and a complete submission to 
 our directions, conditions essential for the good functioning of a very 
 complicated administration. We received with joy the successor of Mgr. 
 Granjon, Dr. Freri, well persuaded that, chosen by you, and being pre- 
 sented to the Council under your patronage, he will fulfill all the de- 
 sired conditions to continue to manage well the Apostolic campaign so 
 happily commenced by the Respectable Superior of the Seminary of St. 
 Mary of Baltimore and of the Bishop of Tucson. 18 
 
 As detailed by Monsignor Freri, the funds contributed by 
 the Catholics in the United States for the Society were as 
 follows : 
 
 Tear 
 
 TQOO 
 
 Contributed 
 $ 
 
 Year 
 1846 
 
 Contributed 
 886.40 
 
 Year 
 1870 
 
 Contributed 
 8 053 69 
 
 1Q9Q 
 
 
 1847 
 
 810.67 
 
 1871 
 
 13 265 43 
 
 1894 
 
 
 1848 
 
 807.00 
 
 1872 
 
 16 684 97 
 
 1Q9<i 
 
 
 1849 
 
 709.12 
 
 1873 
 
 9 713 53 
 
 1826 
 
 
 1850 
 
 765.00 
 
 1874 
 
 10 274 14 
 
 1827 
 
 
 1851 
 
 600.00 
 
 1875 
 
 9 477 22 
 
 1828 
 
 
 1852 
 
 16,026.41 
 
 1876 
 
 13 173 60 
 
 1COQ 
 
 
 1853 
 
 7,842.13 
 
 1877 
 
 11 459 14 
 
 1830 
 
 
 1854 
 
 11,337.32 
 
 1878 
 
 10,852.64 
 
 1831 
 
 
 1855 
 
 7,235.91 
 
 1879 
 
 7,128.66 
 
 1832 
 
 
 1856 
 
 10,328.65 
 
 1880 
 
 11,686.85 
 
 1833 
 1834 
 
 6.00 
 
 1857 
 1858 
 
 13,713.12 
 30,612.18 
 
 1881 
 1882 
 
 20,845.67 
 41,601.36 
 
 1835 
 
 
 1859 
 
 37,730.81 
 
 1883 
 
 26,731.69 
 
 1836 
 
 
 1860 
 
 12,303.68 
 
 1884 
 
 15,609.33 
 
 1837 
 
 
 1861 
 
 8,529.02 
 
 1885 
 
 17,456.84 
 
 1838 
 
 
 1862 
 
 8,644.31 
 
 1886 
 
 14,786.54 
 
 1839 
 
 
 1863 
 
 8,255.13 
 
 1887 
 
 42,964.18 
 
 1840 
 1841 
 1842 
 1843 
 1844 
 1845 
 
 1,023.10 
 824.00 
 875.49 
 816.99 
 15.30 
 1,655.30 
 
 1864 
 1865 
 1866 
 1867 
 1868 
 1869 
 
 8,291.22 
 7,462.43 
 10,361.17 
 9,341.73 
 10,209.52 
 13,162.89 
 
 1888 
 1889 
 1890 
 1891 
 1892 
 1893 
 
 52,759.22 
 41,687.82 
 ^9,092.76 
 40,303.85 
 35,907.58 
 44,753.58 
 
 18. A copy of this letter was also sent me by M. Guasco. 
 
126 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 1894 
 
 25,065.68 
 
 1905 157,057.98 
 
 1916 
 
 1895 
 
 34,707.39 
 
 1906 185,287.71 
 
 1917 
 
 1896 
 
 32,855.54 
 
 1907 193,054.44 
 
 1918 
 
 1897 
 
 34,196.31 
 
 1908 193,122.36 
 
 1919 
 
 1898 
 
 55,511.79 
 
 1909 220,082.78 
 
 1920 
 
 1899 
 
 69,402.49 
 
 1910 268,314.08 
 
 1921 
 
 1900 
 
 71,229.35 
 
 1911 281,234.38 
 
 
 1901 
 
 77,000.00 
 
 1912 366,460.59 
 
 
 1902 
 
 85,408.44 
 
 1913 440,004.31 
 
 
 1903 
 
 92,503.48 
 
 1914 477,427.94 
 
 
 1904 
 
 156,942.92 
 
 1915 503,619.08 
 
 
 
 VII. HOLLAND 
 
 
 (1837-1892) 
 
 From 
 
 1837 to 1841 Holland Gave 25,367 fr. 
 
 ( i 
 
 1842 " 1851 " " 819,377 " Increase 
 
 ( ( 
 
 1852 " 1861 " ll 916,461 " " 
 
 tt 
 
 1862 " 1871 " " 847,677 " Decrease 
 
 a 
 
 1872 " 1881 " " 1,052,259 " Increase 
 
 tt 
 
 1882 " 1891 " " 1,122,767 " " 
 
 500,223.27 
 
 759,346.70 
 
 971,888.48 
 
 1,372,896.13 
 
 1,315,752.62 
 
 1,245,403.53 
 
 $10,983,452.06 
 
 n 
 
 794,010 fr. 
 97,083 " 
 68,784 " 
 
 204,582 " 
 70,502 
 
 Save for a slight downward trend from 1862 to 1871, 
 Holland has progressed moderately and continually. Out of 
 1,647,000 Catholics in 1891, including Luxembourg, there 
 were 38,460 Associates. 
 
 VIII. SWITZERLAND 
 
 (1827-1892) 
 
 From 1827 to 1831 Switzl'd Gave 
 
 1832 " 
 1842 " 
 1852 " 
 1862 " 
 
 1872 " 
 1882 " 
 
 1841 
 1851 
 1861 
 1871 
 1881 
 1891 
 
 3,336 fr. 
 163,636 " 
 446,821 " 
 476,909 " 
 484,056 " 
 593,307 " 
 810,365 " 
 
 Increase 
 
 160,000 fr. 
 
 283,185 " 
 
 29,987 " 
 
 7,247 " 
 
 109,250 " 
 
 217,058 " 
 
 Progress, in the work of the Society, while swift at the 
 beginning, slowed down considerably in Switzerland from 
 1852 to 1870. The crisis of Swiss radicalism, and the interest 
 taken in Peter's Pence, easily explain this decline. In the 
 years between 1872 and 1891, the movement again quickened 
 and the country approached the figure of 100,000 fr. a year. 
 
 19. PRERI, op. cit., in the Annals, vol. LXXXV, p. 68, 1922. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 127 
 
 IX. PORTUGAL 
 
 (1837-1892) 
 From 1837 to 1841 Portugal Gave 
 
 " 1842 
 
 " 1852 " 
 
 " 1862 " 
 
 " 1872 " 
 
 " 1882 " 
 
 1851 
 1861 
 1871 
 
 1881 
 1891 
 
 93,573 fr. 
 336,530 " 
 232,684 " 
 336,434 " 
 493,848 " 
 482,908 " 
 
 Increase 
 Decrease 
 
 Increase 
 
 < t. 
 
 Decrease 
 
 242,956 fr. 
 103,845 " 
 103,749 " 
 157,414 " 
 10,940 " 
 
 From 1872 to 1891, the receipts from Portugal varied 
 between 40,000 and 50,000 f r. Of a total Catholic population 
 of 4,300,000, there were about 18,000 Associates. 
 
 X. SOUTH AMERICA 
 
 (1840-1892) 
 
 From 1840 to 1841 S. A. Gave 2,894 fr. 
 
 " 153,138 " 
 " 261,306 " 
 " 384,692 " 
 " 447,195 " 
 " 334,942 " 
 
 1842 " 1851 
 
 1852 " 1861 
 
 1862 " 1871 
 
 1872 " 1881 
 
 1882 " 1891 
 
 Increase 
 
 Decrease 
 
 150,244 fr. 
 108,167 " 
 123,386 " 
 62,502 " 
 113,256 " 
 
 The republics of South America, a prey to the plague of 
 secret societies and to the intrigues of politicians, scarcely 
 permitted any stability to Catholic societies. Although the 
 Catholic population surpassed 40,000,000 souls, the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Faith has developed very slowly. 
 
 
 XI. SPAIN 
 (1839-1892) 
 
 From 1839 to 1841 Spain 
 
 Gave 33,274 fi 
 
 1 < 1842 
 
 1851 " 
 
 " 167,661 
 
 1852 
 
 1861 " 
 
 " 158,020 
 
 " 1862 
 
 1871 " 
 
 " 110,142 
 
 " 1872 
 
 1881 ll 
 
 " 178,198 
 
 " 1882 
 
 1891 " 
 
 < ' 706,039 
 
 Increase 134,386 fr. 
 
 Decrease 9,641 " 
 
 " 47,787 " 
 
 Increase 68,056 " 
 
 " 527,840 " 
 
 If the noble and Catholic Spain, ranks in the eleventh 
 place after all the Catholic States, the fault is not with her 
 but with the policies of her Government, which proscribed 
 the Society in its infancy (1840). Until the year 1880, the 
 native land of St. Francis Xavier, the patron of the Society, 
 
128 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 was represented by an annual contribution of four or five 
 thousand francs. In 1890, it had surpassed 100,000 fr. 
 
 XII LEVANT 
 
 (1827-1892) 
 
 From 1827 to 1831 Levant Gave 
 
 1832 
 1842 
 1852 
 
 1862 
 
 1872 
 1882 
 
 1841 
 1851 
 1861 
 1871 
 1881 
 1891 
 
 Increase 
 
 46,674 fr. 
 
 i ( 
 
 141,492 " 
 
 t 1 
 
 77,599 " 
 
 Decrease 
 
 56,406 " 
 
 Increase 
 
 8,255 " 
 
 n 
 
 29,424 " 
 
 498 fr. 
 47,102 
 188,894 
 266,494 
 210,088 
 218,343 
 247,768 
 
 Under "the name Levant are grouped in the Society's 
 budget the contributions of the Island of Malta, of European 
 Turkey, of Roumania, of Greece, of the Islands of the Arch- 
 ipelago. All these countries, with the exception of Malta, 
 being still in the condition of Missions, the progress of the 
 Society has been necessarily slight. 
 
 XIII. AFRICA 
 
 (1857-1892) 
 
 From 1857 to 1861 Africa Gave 30,399 fr. 
 
 " 1862 " 1871 " " 325,471 " 
 
 " 1872 " 1881 " " 308,885 " 
 
 " 1882 " 1891 " " 326,374 " 
 
 Increase 
 Decrease 
 Increase 
 
 295,071 fr. 
 16,585 " 
 17,489 " 
 
 Africa, the land of the Missions, could offer to the Apos- 
 tolate little but its prayers and its sufferings. 
 
 XIV. OCEANIA 
 
 (1843-1892) 
 
 From 1843 to 1851 Oceania Gave 502 fr. 
 
 " 1852 " 1861 " il 31,189 " Increase 30,687 fr. 
 
 " 1862 " 1871 " " 50,311 " " 19,121 " 
 
 " 1872 " 1881 " " 104,170 " " 53,858 " 
 
 " 1882 " 1891 " " 152,639 " " 48,469 " 
 
 The contributions of Oceania are furnished by Australia, 
 by New Caledonia, by the Sandwich Islands and the Mar- 
 quises Islands. It is to be regretted that the Philippines, 
 with their 4,000,000 excellent Catholics, were not represented 
 in 1891. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 129 
 
 XV. RUSSIA AND POLAND 
 (1837-1892) 
 
 From 1837 to 1841 Territory Gave 
 
 1842 " 
 " 1852 " 
 " 1862 " 
 1872 " 
 " 1882 " 
 
 1851 
 1861 
 1871 
 
 1881 
 1891 
 
 ave 6,102 fr. 
 1 129,757 " 
 < 124,539 " 
 1 13,557 
 < 22,760 " 
 < 20,697 " 
 
 Increase 
 Decrease 
 
 Increase 
 Decrease 
 
 123,654 fr. 
 5,217 " 
 110,982 " 
 9,202 " 
 2,062 " 
 
 Up to 1891 Poland had given 300,000 fr. 
 
 XVI. ASIA 
 
 (1848-1892) 
 
 From 1848 to 1851 Asia Gave 1,035 fr. 
 
 " 1852 " 1861 " " 30,236 " Increase 
 
 " 1862 " 1871 " " 84,902 " 
 
 " 1872 " 1881 " ll 107,308 " " 
 
 " 1882 ^ 1891 " <( 89,467 " Decrease 
 
 29,183 fr. 
 54,666 " 
 22,406 " 
 17,841 " 
 
 In Asia are included Asiatic Turkey, India, Cochin-China 
 and China. In 1891 their contributions were still small being 
 the alms of the poor, it is particularly dear to the heart of 
 God. 20 
 
 Even missionary countries gave the Society a good number 
 of Associates. To implant a fruitful missionary spirit in its 
 beneficiaries, it has been the constant practice of the Society 
 to ask help, even from those who are receiving it. Little by 
 little, as the need for assistance diminishes, the country in 
 which the Faith has been established and preserved increases 
 its support to the continued extensions of the Missions of 
 the Church. The readiness to train and send out missionaries 
 so that others may enjoy they spiritual blessings, is perhaps 
 the best guarantee of the genuine establishment of the Faith 
 in any locality. How far the purpose of the Society in this 
 direction is effective may be seen by the report published 
 each year in the June number of the Annales of the help con- 
 tributed even by countries in which the Church is as yet 
 scarcely settled. 21 
 
 20. LOUVET, op. cit., pp. 3a-8a. 
 
 21. FRERI, op. cit., p. 9, 1912. 
 
130 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE SUCCESS OF THE SOCIETY 
 
 In a chapter devoted to the accomplishments of the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Faith during the past one hundred 
 years, the chief difficulty is to keep within the proportionate 
 limits which this subject should be alloted in our work. Those 
 accomplishments are of so universal a nature, touching as they 
 do, the apostolate of our Holy Faith, Catholic education in 
 its various branches, welfare work in pagan and civilized 
 lands, and certain incidental fields of activity in which the 
 Society takes its place as the promoter of scientific progress. 
 To give the cumulative results of its century of success in 
 Europe, in Asia, in Africa and in the Americas in anything 
 like a worthy manner would take far more space than can 
 be spared in this work, which is of a general historical char- 
 acter. Especially is this true for the history of the Society's 
 activities in behalf of the Missions of the United States. A 
 glance at the statistical tables at the end of this chapter will 
 reveal the vastness of the subject, even for the United States. 
 To some future occasion must be postponed the more detailed 
 story of the Society's success in this country. 
 
 Brunetiere has well summed up the accomplishments of 
 the Society in the Conclusion which he wrote to the well- 
 known work on the history of the Missions compiled by 
 Piolet: Les Missions Catholiques Frangaises. In whatever 
 part of the world the missionary has gone to exercise his 
 apostolate, he writes, he has labored for the growth and spread 
 of civilization. Everywhere the light of the West penetrates 
 the darksome shadowlands of the East, family life is bettered, 
 savage customs are obliterated, slavery is driven out, and 
 manners are softened and made more humane. Surely this, 
 he adds, can never be considered a heavy burden to the West, 
 and especially to Western Catholics, who have so admirably 
 aided in the propagation of the Gospel. 1 It is quite natural 
 
 1. PIOLET, La France au Dehors, Les Missions Catholiques Frangaises 
 au XIX Siecle. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 131 
 
 that Brunetiere would see in these accomplishments a great 
 boon to the French nation ; since France, the home of refine- 
 ment, thus carries to the world, sitting in darkness, the light 
 of our modern progress. The ''Vocation of the Gentiles," as 
 Fenelon has described the work of aiding the missionaries, 
 has been one that has always appealed to the Christian heart ; 
 and so it is that the great French Society has accomplished 
 things for God and for humanity which far surpass in number 
 and in quality those of any similar organization in the world. 
 
 It must be also be remembered that the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Faith does not exercise any jurisdiction 
 in the training and placing of missionaries, still less with 
 the internal administration of the Missions. Its only aim 
 is to invite the prayers of the faithful for the extension of 
 the Church and to create a fund out of which all the Missions 
 may receive an annual subsidy in porportion to the number 
 of workers and their relative needs. 2 Ever since those elo- 
 quent words of M. Benoit Coste at the foundation of the 
 Society: "We are Catholics and we must form a 'catholic' 
 society," that is, one which assists the Missions of the whole 
 world, the Society has always made it a principle to assist 
 all Catholic Missions. The spirit of charity which animates it 
 knows no limit, neither does it exclude any people, any 
 country, any language, from its assistance so-called Catholic 
 Nations, such as France, Italy, Austria and Spain, are how- 
 ever excluded from these allocations. 8 After the example of 
 the early faithful, the Society makes collections the product of 
 which it divides according as it seems most useful for the 
 good of the souls. Such is the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Faith; such its spirit and its acts. 
 
 Its first collection in 1822 was distributed as follows : 
 one-third went to New Orleans, one-third to Bardstown, and 
 one-third to the Societe des Missions fitrangeres for the 
 
 2. FRERI, Propagation of the Faith, in the Catholic Encyclopedia, 
 vol. XII, p. 461. 
 
 3. Annales, t. XLIX, pp. 157-160. 
 
132 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Orient. In 1827 we find Africa and Oceania (represented 
 by the Sandwich Islands) included in the apportionment of 
 the missionary funds. Only five years after its beginning 
 the Society had fulfilled the * ' catholic ' ' character its founders 
 had given it. 4 
 
 To speak of what the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith has accomplished is to speak of our Missions and their 
 results. These results are of a moral and religious nature 
 and can neither be counted nor measured. By this very 
 fact, they are very difficult to appreciate. What can be 
 said of these results, however, will give at least a partial 
 satisfaction to those interested in the disbursements of the 
 Society, and will give a sufficient reply to a query which 
 one often meets namely, whether our foreign missionaries 
 lose their time, their efforts and the funds of which they 
 dispose. 6 
 
 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith, whose 
 activities so powerfully aid in the diffusion of the Gospel, 
 produces first of all results of evangelization, properly so 
 called, of education and of charity and renders valuable ser- 
 vices to science and to civilization. 6 "Since the beginning 
 of the 19th century what is the progress that Catholicism 
 has made? There is the numeric progress; the hierarchical 
 progress ; progress in works of benevolence and of civilization ; 
 in influences and in hopes, often bold, which at times the facts 
 themselves surpass in the most extraordinary manner. But 
 what strikes us most here is the weakness, and the unlikeliness 
 of the means by which this progress has been obtained. Often 
 the means appeared so opposed to their ends, according to 
 human wisdom, that one ought rather to call them obstacles ; 
 their triumph has shown us visibly the finger and the action 
 of God. Let us cite the facts. ' ' 7 
 
 4. FRERI, op. cit., p. 10, 1912. 
 
 5. PIOLET, Nos Missions et Nos Missionnaires, p. 27, Paris. 
 
 6. GASPARRI, Letter to M. Delmas, Superieur du Seminaire des 
 Missions Etrangeres, in La Societe des Missions Etrangeres, Paris, 1919. 
 
 7. MIGNE, Encyclopedia Theologique, Dictionnaire des Missions, p. 
 VIII, Paris, 1863. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 133 
 
 In the 300 Missions of Asia, Africa and Oceania, sup- 
 ported by the Society there are about 15,000 missionary 
 priests. In seminaries all over the world, laborers eager, 
 ardent and numerous, are being prepared for the apostolate. 
 How to provide for the expense, of their ecclesiastical forma- 
 tion, of their voyages, of their modest support on the Mis- 
 sions these are the main problems of the Society. In the 
 course of the nineteenth century, a number of Societies, re- 
 sponding to this necessity, have assisted in the budget of the 
 apostolate. The principal Society of this nature is of course, 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. The progress 
 of this Society up to the present has been phenomenal; but 
 few persons, perhaps, even among the Society's most 
 fervent associates have an exact idea of these needs; that is 
 why it will not be inappropriate to present a rapid sketch 
 of them. 
 
 A good index of the growth of the Apostolate may be 
 found in the remarkable increase in the personnel during 
 the last century. In 1822, the harvest was great, but the 
 laborers were few, being scarcely 1,000 in all. Today 
 the missionary army is made up of some 60,000 persons, 
 15,000 of whom are priests and religious, 4,000 teaching 
 brothers and 40,000 sisters, not to speak of the priests, 
 brothers and sisters native to the regions where they work, 
 catechists and others who make up the personnel of the Mis- 
 sion, and the laborers among the Oriental Rites. 8 The mis- 
 sionary establishments essential for the activity of this army 
 of missionaries have also shown a proportionate increase. 
 From 1822 to 1922 the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith received from all sources and from all parts of the 
 world a total of $100,341,625, the total for the first year being 
 but $4,000. Just as in the time of Christ, "faith cometh by 
 hearing, ' ' and ' * how can they hear without a preacher, ' ' so the 
 missionaries are the principal human cause of conversions. 
 The Society has made it possible for missionary orders to 
 accept all those candidates who appear fitted for the life of 
 
 8. FRERI, op. cic., in Annals, vol. LXXXV, p. 19, 1922. 
 
134 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 an evangelist. To the gift from the Society which assures 
 the personal existence of numerous apostles it added annual 
 allocation for the Missions themselves which vary according 
 to the resources and according to the importance of these 
 Missions. 
 
 Besides what is indispensable for the life of the missionary 
 in a country occasionally deprived of resources, which they 
 evangelize, the Society must support, in addition, the expense 
 of the voyage of those who go into these distant regions to 
 aid in the work, to replace those who have died, to supply 
 the insufficiency of others whose health these rude labors or 
 an unhealthy climate have badly undermined. For these new 
 auxiliaries it is necessary, as for the first, that the Society 
 furnish subsidies with the aid of which they procure clothing, 
 books, the necessary objects of worship, and utensils of all 
 kinds even including agricultural implements which they do 
 not find in these countries. 9 
 
 The funds which it provides, employed with wisdom and 
 economy, permit missionaries to create and sustain these relig- 
 ious activities and works of general interest, either educational 
 or charitable. A recent writer, in analyzing the nature of 
 missionary work, emphasized the point that, in addition to 
 the spiritual end, the Society had its educational, philan- 
 thropic, social, medical and economic ends or purposes. ' ' The 
 problem, ' ' he continues, * * of the missionary is to bring civiliza- 
 tion to the native. The next problem is to protect the native 
 against the civilization which has been brought. The mis- 
 sionary must also be an educator. He must labor to develop 
 the character, the intelligence and the opportunity of the 
 native." 10 
 
 The alms of the Society enable the missionary to open 
 chapels, seminaries, schools, orphanages and hospitals and to 
 sustain all these works which constitute and assure the de- 
 velopment of the Mission. 
 
 9. L'Oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, in the Annales, t. XLIX, 
 p. 157. 
 
 10. MOORE, The Expansion of Christendom and the Naturalisation 
 of Christianity in the Orient in the XIX Century, London, 1920. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 133 
 
 The funds of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 are employed: 1, for the support of the missionaries; 2, to 
 bring up young men for the priesthood ; 3, to establish schools ; 
 4, to print books of religion ; 5, to build and support churches 
 in the Missions; 6, to baptize infidel infants; 7, to buy back 
 Christian children fallen into the hands of the pagans. The 
 Superior of the Scminaire de Missions Etrangcres, M. TAbbe 
 Langlois, at the beginning of the Society, expressed this 
 thought as follows: "The missionaries . . . and native 
 priests, the catechists, the students of seminaries and of the 
 colleges, the neophytes, in one word all those who participate 
 in the fruits of your charity, share in the sentiments of our 
 gratitude and force themselves to attract by their vows and 
 their prayers the benedictions of heaven on all the members 
 of the Association. ' ' 
 
 In the century that is passed the Society has brought 
 each year new proofs of the solidity of its organization, of 
 the zeal and ability of its councils and of its marvelous utility. 
 It is assuredly one of the most efficacious means, of which 
 Providence has made use, for the development of the Missions 
 in our time. It has founded hundreds of new churches, has 
 sent to every part of the world thousands of priests, to estab- 
 lish seminaries, colleges, schools, hospitals, orphanages and 
 multiply the number of neophytes. What it began in 1822, it 
 has continued to maintain and develop. The assistance which 
 the Society has accorded to the Catholic missionaries is, how- 
 ever, far below that which the Protestant Church gives to its 
 Bible Societies; but the Catholic missionary lives in poverty 
 and very little is necessary for his personal needs. 
 
 In the strictly religious work of the Missions, the personnel 
 generally consists of a bishop or head of the Mission, of a 
 diocesan and religious clergy. The necessary expenses in- 
 volved in training and supporting this personnel in the whole 
 world are met by the alms provided by the Society. Following 
 the example of his Master, the missionary must learn to live 
 amid privations. Nevertheless, it is necessary to finance his 
 
 11. LAUNAY, op. cit., t. II, p. 516. 
 
136 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 education, the long voyages which he must make to reach his 
 destination, to assure him his daily sustenance. 12 At certain 
 points it is seminaries which are lacking ; however, it is very 
 necessary to provide for the perpetuation of the priesthood 
 wherever a native clergy is possible; and the Society gives 
 its assistance to this sacred need. If persecution should break 
 out in some of the Foreign Missions, the Society must make 
 exceptional allocations to that place. 
 
 The establishments which are indispensable for the work 
 of the Apostolate are churches, chapels, stations for public 
 worship and instruction and presbyteries, all of which must 
 be built, furnished and maintained. 
 
 Education constitutes a very important activity, and the 
 missionaries have everywhere done much for education. It 
 is by education, indeed, by the formation of new generations, 
 that a country is transformed, elevated and civilized and 
 changed from a pagan land into a truly Christian people. 13 
 
 The schools and educational establishments possess a par- 
 ticular importance since in many lands the task of reclaiming 
 adults of a low cultural level, whose minds are obsessed with 
 superstitions and brutalized by crime, is a well-nigh impos- 
 sible one." The personnel, which is consecrated to this edu- 
 cational work, consists of priests who devote themselves to 
 education, and of teaching communities of brothers and 
 sisters. Funds must be provided for the expense of this per- 
 sonnel, as well as for that of its education and this is in large 
 part provided for by the Society. There are besides many 
 native Sisterhoods who teach Christian doctrine and inspire 
 an affection for the Faith in the people. These pious women 
 need convents to shelter them and subsidies for their works. 
 
 This assistance is also given to the colleges and board- 
 ing schools. Colleges and schools of all kinds must be 
 erected and maintained and monasteries and convents must 
 be provided, as well as novitiates. Three-fourths or four- 
 
 12. LOUVET, op. cit., p. la. 
 
 13. PIOLET, Nos Missions et Nos Missionnaires, pp. 31-32. 
 
 14. KENNEDY, Missions, Catholic, in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 
 X, p. 376. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 137 
 
 fifths of the whole personnel of the Missions labor in the field 
 of education. Thirty thousand teachers are engaged in the 
 work of education, in the following schools: 
 
 Universities 2 
 
 Colleges 125 
 
 Seminaries 87 
 
 Orphanages 304 , 
 
 Schools 9,428 
 
 Total 9,946 
 
 The number of students in 1900 was as follows : 
 
 Europe, Missionary Countries 10,927 Children 
 
 Asia 272,544 " 
 
 Africa 165,291 
 
 America 52,615 " 
 
 Oceania 16,900 
 
 Total 518,277 Children 15 
 
 From the material point of view, the following facts for 
 1900 are significant: In Africa there were over 58 agricul- 
 tural schools, and over 200 in Asia, where children were 
 taught to work in the gardens and the fields. When they were 
 grown up, they possessed sufficient instruction to know how 
 to handle tools. Others were trained in the workshops gen- 
 erally next to the Mission, and became carpenters, joiners, 
 farmers, bricklayers, bakers, shoemakers and tailors. 
 
 In similar establishments, girls were trained by the Sisters 
 for the work and the professions suitable for their sex. Being 
 at once, teachers and artisans, catechists and cultivators, the 
 Sisters and Brothers rapidly raised the level and the material 
 situation of the peoples to whom they ministered. 16 
 
 In addition to the ordinary means of instruction, a press 
 destined to provide books and newspapers were necessary 
 here or there, for they were indispensable arms with which to 
 defend religion against the attacks of inimical persons. 
 
 There was hardly a Mission in which it was not necessary 
 to raise and instruct the children of idolatrous parents, to 
 
 15. PIOLET, ut supra, pp. 32-33. 
 
 16. PIOLET, ut supra, pp. 28-29. 
 
138 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 redeem slaves, to found Christian villages in these infidel 
 lands. This welfare work so vitally linked with missionary 
 activity demanded a personnel similar to that engaged in edu- 
 cational activity. 
 
 In many places hospitals, leprosaria, homes of refuge, 
 orphanages, asylums in which to instruct catechumens, or 
 agricultural schools or other kinds of establishments were 
 erected. There was scarcely a Mission which was without dis- 
 pensary to which the natives came in large numbers every day 
 to ask for consultation and to procure remedies. Orphanages 
 were built in which to receive abandoned infants, to give them 
 an education appropriate to their future needs and to protect 
 them until they were definitely established in life. The number 
 of these different works of charity was very large, there were 
 655 such institutions in Asia, 323 in Africa, 13 in Oceania, 
 47 in the Missions of America ; in all 1,038." A large amount 
 of money was required to finance these institutions and the 
 greater share of this money was provided by the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Faith. At times, unforeseen accidents 
 occurred such as fires, floods, extraordinary famines, wars and 
 their disastrous consequences, periods of unemployment which 
 reduced the local resources of the Missions and for the moment 
 compromised their existence. 18 Far from being able to support 
 the missionary at these periods, the missionary on the con- 
 trary, had to look elsewhere for aid, and it was chiefly through 
 the assistance of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 that he was able to obtain it. 
 
 Apart from all this ecclesiastical and social activity, the 
 Society aids the missionary in the important work of civilizing 
 the people to whom he is sent. Local superstition and tradi- 
 tional prejudices against Christianity have to be driven out of 
 the hearts of these pagans. The missionaries give to their cate- 
 chumens a consciousness of their dignity. They put them in a 
 position to know themselves, to discipline themselves and to 
 govern themselves. In rendering them participants in the life 
 
 17. PIOLET, ut supra, p. 31. 
 
 18. L'Oeuvre, etc., in the Annales, t. XLIX, p. 159. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 139 
 
 of the Gospel they introduce them to a new and superior life ; 
 they make of them Christians. They deliver the oppressed; 
 they liberate prisoners and thus the interests of civilization 
 are served. In whatever part of the world they exercise their 
 Apostolate, the progress of civilization is assured. One can 
 find more than one proof of it in the history of the Missions, 
 but in return wherever the missionaries establish their peace- 
 ful empire the arts of the West follow them; everyday life 
 improves, family relations are more firmly established or are 
 purified. 19 
 
 For example, the natives of Oceania, once inveterate can- 
 nibals, have today become peaceful and inoffensive farmers. 
 The negroes of Africa, among whom there existed neither 
 marriage nor family, nor any reverence for woman, among 
 whom were committed unspeakable cruelties as a consequence 
 of superstition or of passion, are now united in marriage 
 and set themselves to live civilized lives in established villages, 
 with order and tranquillity. Infanticide has rapidly dimin- 
 ished in proportion as the Society of the Holy Childhood 
 developed. Slavery has diminished and rapidly disappeared. 
 The law of property, public morality, Christian decency, the 
 flower and safeguard of virtue, respect for women, for chil- 
 dren, for the aged, have developed and multiplied under the 
 influence of the missionaries whose work was made possible by 
 the funds of the Society. 20 
 
 In addition to these three main divisions of missionary 
 activities: Religion, Education and Charity, other incidental 
 results have been attained through the cooperation of the 
 Society. The spiritual reaction upon the donors themselves is 
 one very important incidental result. The charity and zeal 
 which they practice in behalf of their less fortunate brothers 
 has no little influence upon their own spiritual life. An in- 
 stance of this is found in the revival of zeal in France after the 
 apostolic tour of Bishop Flaget in 1838. The layman who 
 
 19. BRUNETIERE, in PIOLET, Les Missions Catholiques Frangaises 
 au XIX Sitcle, t. VI, pp. 496-497 ; Cf . La Propagation de la Foi, in the 
 Annales, t. LXXVIII, pp. 429-430. 
 
 20. PIOLET, ut supra, pp. 28-29. 
 
140 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 thus participates in Apostolic work inevitably becomes a better 
 Catholic. Through its publications, the Society, has been pro- 
 ductive of much good. One can readily imagine the number 
 of persons whose eyes have been opened and whose souls have 
 been comforted by a description of the trials and sufferings 
 willingly supported for the glory of God, contained in these 
 works. Indirectly too, it wins apostles, who upon reading it 
 become inflamed with zeal for the kingdom of God ; both men 
 and women are moved to go forward to carry the good tidings 
 of salvation to distant lands. Undoubtedly, no one becomes 
 an apostle without a divine call ; but that call is manifested 
 by exterior signs of which the most usual is example in the 
 first place, seconded by a knowledge of the need of souls. 
 Example awakens generous emulation. How many levites, 
 how many priests and how many virgins have felt their souls 
 moved at the recital of the work of missionaries, and abasing 
 themselves in humility and prayer have arisen, saying : 7, too, 
 wish to be an Apostle! Nowhere are the needs of souls por- 
 trayed in livelier and more pleasing colors than in the letters 
 which fill the Annales. As an eloquent orator has said: 
 ' 'An astonishing and glorious fact marks the close of the cen- 
 tury. Speculators and economists laud the resources, salu- 
 brity and charms of a country ; and they do not always suc- 
 ceed. The publications of the Propagation of the Faith speak 
 of nothing but privations, perils and struggles ; the more they 
 darken the picture, the more they kindle the zeal for Missions, 
 especially if they open the sombre perspective of martyr- 
 dom." 21 
 
 The Blessed Chanel, ordained priest the 15th of July, 1827, 
 named assistant at Amberieux, then pastor of Crozot, was 
 ceaselessly pursued by the thought of the Missions. "I read 
 one day a number of the Annales which upset my soul. I 
 seemed to see the poor islanders, these idolaters, these canni- 
 bals, whom the demon held under his empire. They held out 
 their arms to us, I seemed to hear their piercing cries : 'Who 
 will dissipate our darkness? Who will break our chains of 
 
 21. FRERI, op. cit., p. 16, 1912. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 141 
 
 slavery ? Come to our aid '. ' ' There is no doubt but that the 
 reading of the Annales was influential in the development of 
 the vocation of Blessed Perboyre. Theophane Venard, put 
 to death for the Faith in Tonkin on February 2, 1861, felt 
 that the desire to be a missionary was born within him while 
 perusing the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi; it was also 
 the same with Mgr. Ridel who died in Korea : "It was in a 
 humble Breton college that a child was playing by his mother 's 
 side when he beheld in her hand a copy of the Annales. 
 'Mother, are there stories in that book?' 'Yes, my child, 
 stories of missionaries. ' ' But what are missionaries ? ' * They 
 are the priests who go far away among the savages to teach 
 them to know and love God, to save their souls and to go to 
 Heaven.' 'Well, then, I want to go and tell them myself so 
 that they will come with us to Paradise. ' The valiant mother 
 embraced her child: 'Poor little one,' she said, 'may thy 
 life be God 's. ' Some years later the son of the Breton woman 
 entered Korea. In 1870 he was consecrated Bishop and on 
 June 28, 1884, after a long captivity, the confessor of the 
 Faith died with regret that he had not been able to shed his 
 blood for Jesus Christ. It is quite possible that nearly all 
 those who have been put to death for the Faith since 1822 
 had in some way or another received aid from the Society, 
 and insofar as it has aided them it has to that extent partici- 
 pated in the supreme sacrifice which they gladly offered." 
 
 The labor pf the missionary also has its patriotic, economic, 
 and scientific sides, which must not be overlooked. 
 
 The patriotic or national side of missionary activity is a 
 delicate subject to discuss. The motto of the American College 
 of the Immaculate Conception at Louvain : Missionarii Patria 
 Sancta Mater Ecclesia, is the ideal of the true missionary. 
 As Bishop Le Roy has written : ' ' Let us not deceive our- 
 selves, God is neither French, Russian nor Spanish, nor Portu- 
 gese nor English nor German nor Italian, but He makes use 
 of that nation which He finds to be best equipped to carry out 
 
 22. GUASCO, op. cit., pp. 30-31, 1904; TISSOT, L'Oeuvre de la Prop- 
 agation de la Foi et ses Publications, Discours prononce dans I'Eglise 
 Primatiale de Lyon le 23 Mai, 1894, p. 25, Lyon, 1894. 
 
142 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 His work." Many French writers who discuss the Missions 
 have indulged in a certain amount of boasting regarding the 
 national propaganda carried on by their missionaries. It 
 would be hard to separate the missionary from his nationality 
 and to prevent his fatherland from profiting from his labors. 24 
 
 But other great services are those which the missionaries 
 have rendered to science, to literature, to linguistics, to cartog- 
 raphy, to geography, ethnography, natural history. An 
 enumeration of the scientific works of the missionaries, the 
 discoveries which we owe to them, the books which they have 
 published, the services which they have rendered to our 
 voyagers and explorers, the lands which they have made 
 known, the observatories, etc., which they have founded, the 
 maps which they have prepared, leave one literally astonished 
 at the catalogue of progress accomplished by the missionaries. 
 
 That incomparable collection, the Lettres Edifiantes, con- 
 tains a description of places and an enumeration of natural 
 curiosities with notices of botany, zoology, ethnography, lin- 
 guistics, historic information, analyses of local superstition, 
 traits and customs, characteristic anecdotes : in truth, nothing 
 is lacking which could contribute to the more precise knowl- 
 edge of the earth or of man. 28 
 
 From the $100,000,000 which this Society has distributed 
 to the Missions throughout the world, an immense good there- 
 fore has resulted. 
 
 For all these indispensable works the missionaries receive 
 an annual income from 500 to 600 francs together 
 with some assistance, more or less uncertain, which is 
 sent by their families or by their friends in Europe. 20 In 
 
 23. LE ROY, A La Fin D'Un Sieclc in the Annales, t. LXXI, p. 427. 
 
 24. BAUDRILLART, Le Papc et les Interets Francoises dans le Monde, 
 in L'Gcho de Paris, Feb. 14, 1921. 
 
 25. BRUNETIERE, in PIOLET, Les Missions Catholiques, etc., t. VI, 
 p. 491, Paris, 1900. 
 
 26. Kennedy in his article on the Catholic Missions in the Catholic 
 Encyclopedia discredits all estimate^ of the total financial contributions 
 for the support of the missionaries and particularly comparisons between 
 the total budget for Catholic missions and that of Protestant missions. 
 Even a hazardous estimate may, however, enable us to form a fair idea 
 of the poverty of our missionaries, and for this reason, is useful. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 143 
 
 order to show more in detail the income of each missionary 
 and the establishments which he must support by means of 
 it a few quotations will be given from authorities on this 
 question : Mgr. Le Roy estimated that a budget of 7,000,000 
 fr. was to be divided among 70,000 missionaries throughout 
 the world, which would average 100 francs per year to each. 
 These revenues, he, says, must suffice for the support, the 
 lodging, the voyages, the personnel, church construction, ex- 
 penses of all kinds, including expenses for pleasure. 27 Louvet 
 in 1891 estimated the budget at 6,779,363 fr. which total was 
 divided among 277 missions, allowing on an average 24,474 f r. 
 to each mission. From this must be taken the living expenses 
 of the Superior of the Mission and the missionaries and the 
 same for native priests if there are any, also the support of the 
 seminary and the schools of the Mission. The expense of the 
 catechumenate, the salary of the catechists, etc., the support 
 of churches, chapels and other establishments of the Mission, 
 the support of hospitals, refuges and other establishments of 
 charity, varying according to the place, the assistance from 
 poor, persecuted Christians, must likewise be provided. These 
 are the indispensable works of each mission. Without these 
 works, more or less developed according to the locality, it is 
 impossible to do good or to found anything permanent. 
 Louvet summarizes the material needs of the Missions in these 
 words : * * One must feed the apostolic laborers, build churches 
 in which to celebrate worship, open schools for the instruction 
 of the children, found and support thousands of works of the 
 apostolate and of charity." For example the following is 
 the table of the obligatory expenses of the mission of Saigon 
 in Western Cochin China in 1891 : 
 
 1) Traveling Expense of the Vicar Apostolic and 49 Mis- 
 
 sionaries 33,660 f r. 
 
 2) Ecclesiastical Retreats, Time in Hospital and Voyages 
 
 of Missionaries 3,000 ' ( 
 
 3) Traveling Expenses of 44 Native Priests 14,520 " 
 
 4) Expense of Ordination, Chapels for Native Priests and 
 
 Supply of Vestments 2,000 1 1 
 
 5) 120 Scholarships at the Seminary 18,000 ' l 
 
 27. LE BOY, Discours, etc., in the Missions Catholiques, No. 1544, 
 p. la. 
 
144 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 6) Maintenance of the Seminary Buildings 4,000 " 
 
 7) 120 Parish Schools 24,000 " 
 
 8) Construction of New Schools and Support of Others 6,000 " 
 
 9) 40 Catechists, Including Voyages 10,000 < ' 
 
 10) Support of Churches, New Construction, Assistance to 
 
 Catechumens 35,000 < 
 
 Total 150,180 fr. 
 
 The sum of 150,000 fr. is strictly necessary in order to 
 assure the functioning of the present work without founding 
 any new works. 28 
 
 The author of La Societe des Missions fitrangeres desig- 
 nates the establishments which were supported by the Propa- 
 gation of the Faith and the Holy Childhood as works of 
 general interest, either charitable or educational ; hospitals, 
 homes for foundlings, orphanages, work rooms, schools ; the 
 construction of churches, oratories and presbyteries. * * Thanks 
 to their labors," he says, "the favorable events of which we 
 have spoken, the results in conversion, in works of zeal, of 
 education and of charity were considerable." Some general 
 statistics will throw additional light on the disbursements of 
 the Society : 
 
 Personnel and 
 
 Establishments. 1822 1860 1917 
 
 Missions 5 22 35 
 
 Bishops 6 21 40 and 2 Archbishops 
 
 Missionaries 27 230 1,234 
 
 Native Priests 135 300 1,043 
 
 Seminaries 9 11 50 
 
 Seminarians 250 400 
 
 Christians 300,000 550,000 1,639,853 
 
 For 1917 the additional statistics were 3,268 catechists, 
 6,839 European and foreign sisters, 5,322 colleges, boarding- 
 schools and schools with 2,594 children, 388 orphan asylums 
 with 16,598 children, 476 dispensaries and pharmacies, and 
 114 hospitals, homes and leprosaries. The number of con- 
 versions obtained in 1913 was 31,903; in 1914, 32,839; in 
 1916, 36,434; in 1917, 29,331." 
 
 28. LOUVET, op. cit., pp. 8a-9a. 
 
 29. La Societe des Missions ttrangeres, pp. 32-34, Paris, 1919. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 145 
 
 In order to enable one to appreciate the happy influence 
 this Society has exercised, a comparative planisphere of the 
 missions in 1822 and in 1885 has been prepared by the direc- 
 tors. The distribution of Catholics over the earth is also 
 shown by another map for the year 1885, but the meagre 
 statistics, especially for the year 1822, do not permit a satis- 
 factory comparison. 30 
 
 How many churches, schools and hospitals have been built, 
 how many new Missions have been made possible by the 
 generous budget provided ? 
 
 The success realized in the Missions has gone hand-in-hand 
 with the progress of the Church in these nations, and has 
 been described in the official Notices sur VOeuvre, etc., as 
 follows : 81 
 
 30. WERNER- GROFFIER, Atlas des Missions Catholiques, Fribourg, 
 1886. 
 
 31. L'Oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, Notice Publiee par Les 
 Conseils Ccntraux de Lyon et de Paris, 1898, in the Appendicc, Histoire 
 Succinte des Missions Au Dix-Neuvieme Siecle, pp. 39-54; L'Oeuvre de 
 la Propagation de la Foi, Dix Annees d'Apvstolat dans les Missions, 
 1898-1907, pp. 39-110. The results of the Catholic missions, produced 
 by means of the funds which the Society has distributed, have been 
 continually chronicled in various forms in the Annales: for example, the 
 Nouvelles des Missions, L'Annee Apostolique, La Situation des Missions 
 en 1822, en 1840, en 1844, en 1849, en 1878, etc., the histories of the 
 missionary societies : Les Peres du Saint Esprit, La Societe des Missions 
 fitrangeres de Paris, La Congregation Beige du Cocur Immacule dff 
 Marie, La Societe des Missions Africaines de Lyon, La Congregation 
 des Lazaristes, La Societe du Verbe Divin, La Societe de Marie, Les 
 Peres Capucins, Les Freres Mineurs, Les Oblats de Marie Immaculee, La 
 Societe Saint Joseph de Mill Hill, L'Institut Lombard de Milan, Les 
 Missionnaires de Saint Frangois de Sales, Les Peres Dominicains, La 
 Compagnie de Jesus, Les Peres des Sacres-Coeurs, Les Silesiens de Don 
 Bosco, Les Missionnaires du Sacre-Coeur, Les Pretres de Saint Sulpice, 
 Les Oblats de Saint Franc. ois de Sales, Les Pretres du Sacre-Coeur de 
 Jesus, La Congregation des Passionistes. The monumental work of 
 Louvet gives a splendid survey of the progress of the missions in the 
 last century and a good exposition of what money the Society has placed 
 at the disposal of the missions in the different countries and continents. 
 Only a laborious study of many years would reveal what an important 
 role this Society has played in the success of Catholic missionary en- 
 deavor. And this study could only be made from the letters from the 
 chiefs of the missions in the archives of the Society in Paris, Lyons and 
 Fribourg. 
 
146 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 EUROPE 
 
 Due to the Greek schism and Protestantism, which in 
 the course of ages have come to shatter the unity of the 
 Church, and to tear the seamless cloak of Christ, a large part 
 of Europe remained to be reconquered by Catholicism. The 
 hierarchy having been destroyed wherever heresy was domi- 
 nant, these unfortunate' people were reduced to the state of 
 Missions and the Catholics there were directed by Vicars 
 Apostolic who were dependant upon Propaganda. 82 
 
 ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 
 
 Three great facts dominate and explain the marvelous 
 progress of Catholicism in Great Britain during ninety years 
 of the nineteenth century : the emancipation of Catholics, 
 the ritualist and Pusey movement, and the reestablishment of 
 the hierarchy, first in England, then in Scotland. At the be- 
 ginning of the last century oppressive laws weighed heavily 
 upon the Catholics of Great Britain : political events and the 
 strength of truth which imposed itself on many elevated minds 
 favored their abrogation. 83 The Catholic religion had no need 
 of the protection of governments for its life and prosperity ; 
 on the contrary, this protection is often fatal to it ; liberty 
 and opportunity alone are necessary. In 1800 there were in 
 England and Scotland together only 120,000 Catholics. In 
 1890, 1,690,000 Catholics. In 1800 there were 6 Vicars Apos- 
 tolic and 55 priests, in 1890, 18 Bishops, and 2,795 priests. 
 The Catholics in England and Scotland in 1897 numbered 
 1,865,000 distributed in 3 archdioceses and 18 dioceses. In 
 1800 there were only two or three educational establishments 
 on the Continent which the French Revolution suppressed. In 
 1840 there were 9 Catholic colleges in Great Britain. In 
 1880 there were in England 23 Catholic colleges and 4 in 
 Scotland in addition to 600 parish schools having 118,000 
 children. In 1890 England had 11 seminaries and 800 stu- 
 
 32. LOUVET, op. tit., p. 3. 
 
 33. Ut supra, p. 25; Cf. WERNER-GROFFIER, Atlas, etc., p. 14, 1886; 
 MIGNE, Encyclopedic, etc., Dictionnaire des Missions, pp. viii-ix. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 147 
 
 dents, 29 colleges with 3,000 students, Scotland had 3 semi- 
 naries with 84 students, 4 colleges with 400 students. 84 All the 
 works of Catholic charity also developed in like proportions. 
 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith greatly aided 
 the Missions in England and Scotland up to 1860. After that 
 period it continued to aid them though in more restricted 
 amounts. In 1898 one Vicariate Apostolic in Wales alone 
 received aid. Ireland has also enjoyed a favorable place in 
 the distribution of the Society during long years, but in 1898 
 only one station in the diocese of Ross received aid. 85 
 
 NORWAY, SWEDEN AND DENMARK 
 
 It was only in 1868 that the laws which oppressed the 
 Catholics in Sweden were in part done away with and in 
 1873 these laws were again modified in favor of tolerance. 
 However, from 1833 there was a Vicariate Apostolic in Nor- 
 way and Sweden composed of 300 Catholics, all foreigners in 
 the realm. In 1869 the two Missions in Norway and Sweden 
 were separated, they formed in 1898 two Vicarites Apostolic. 
 The Vicariate of Sweden numbered nearly 1,300 Catholics 
 and that of Norway 1400. From the year 1869 to 1897 
 Sweden received from the Society for the Propagation of 
 the. Faith nearly 470,000 fr. and Norway, during the same 
 period, nearly 830,000 fr. Prior to 1869 these countries re- 
 ceived substantial assistance for different uses. Up to June 
 9, 1847, harsh laws were enforced in Denmark against the 
 Catholics. After this date the Church of Denmark could hope 
 to revive. In 1898 Denmark constituted a Vicariate Apostolic 
 with several thousand Catholics. The Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Faith from 1869, the time of the erection of 
 the Prefecture Apostolic, to 1897, the Society gave it more 
 than a million francs. 88 
 
 34. LOUVET, ut supra, pp. 31-33; Cf. GUASCO, op. cit., p. 62; 
 GUASCO, Cent Ans d'Apostolat Catholique dans les Missions. 
 35~L'Oeuvre, etc., p. 40, 1898. 
 36. Ut supra, p. 41, 1898. 
 
148 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 GERMANY 
 
 Louvet says that in the North of Germany at the beginning 
 of the 19th century there were about 6,000,000 Catholics. In 
 1890 their number was 12,767,000. If Germany has showed 
 herself generous towards the Society the latter, on its part, 
 has also been generous with its subsidies. In 1898 the 
 Missions of Germany still received important subsidies from 
 the Society. In 1897 it received over 140,000 fr. 37 
 
 SWITZERLAND 
 
 Persecutions have not been wanting to the Catholic 
 Church in Switzerland during the 19th century and in spite 
 of this number of the faithful had continually increased. The 
 Catholics formed scarcely a third of the population in 1800, 
 but composed two-fifths of it in 1890. In 1894 there were 
 1,169,000 Catholics in Switzerland. In the distribution of 
 funds the Central Councils gave the missions of Switzerland 
 47,000 fr. in 1897. 88 
 
 EASTERN EUROPE AND THE BALKAN PENINSULA 
 
 For seventy years the Popes have maintained diplomatic 
 relations with the Sultans, and the Catholics have been sub- 
 missive subjects of the Porte. There are numerous dioceses 
 and establishments in these countries aided by the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Faith. In 1897, 300,000 fr. were dis- 
 tributed to these dioceses by the Society. 39 
 
 ASIA 
 
 In the Extreme Orient in 1822 the Episcopate was com- 
 posed of 12 Pontiffs assisted by one or two missionaries ; two 
 Bishops for India, 6 for China and 4 for Indo-China. The 
 following is a list of the number of Catholics in Asia in 1800 : 
 
 37. Ut supra, p. 41, 1898. 
 
 38. Ut supra, p. 42, 1898. 
 
 39. Ut supra, p. 42, 1898. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 149 
 
 Asia Minor 381,000 Catholics 
 
 Arabia " 
 
 India 475,000 
 
 Indo-China 320,000 
 
 Japan ' ' 
 
 Corea 6,000 
 
 Total for All Asia 1,369,000 Catholics 40 
 
 There were about this time 54,000 Catholics in Japan, 
 720,000 in China, 827,000 in Indo-China, 1,628,000 in India, 
 3,419,000 in all Asia. The Hindu peninsula and the Island 
 of Ceylon possess 26 Archbishops or bishops, 1200 priests, and 
 Indo-China, China and Japan possess 50 Vicars or Prefects 
 Apostolic, 1400 priests. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem 
 was reestablished in 1848. There were only two priests in 
 the Holy Land. Today there are large numbers of secular 
 and religious priests. The Society has sent the Patriarchate 
 more than 2,000,000 fr. from 1848 to 1898 exclusive of what 
 was given directly to the Island of Cyprus and to the Sem- 
 inary of St. Anne of Jerusalem for the Greek "Melchites." 
 This seminary has received 318,000 fr. from the Society from 
 time of its foundation up to 1898. More than 1,200,000 fr. 
 was given to Archepiscopal See of Smyrna ; the Lazarists and 
 the Sisters of Charity received approximately the same amount 
 up to the year 1898. The Apostolic Delegation of Meso- 
 potamia received more than 1,500,000 fr. from the Society; 
 the Dominicans have received 1,300,000 fr., the Capuchins 
 have received 900,000 fr. and the Carmelites 390,000 fr. It 
 was with very great difficulty that Arabia could be evangel- 
 ized due to Mohammedan fanaticism. The Society has given 
 the mission of Aden, confided to the Capuchins, over 300,000 
 fr. At the beginning of the last century there were in India 
 2 Archbishops, 2 Bishops, 2 Vicars Apostolic. The Missions 
 of India received in 1897, 572,446 fr. from the Society. Indo- 
 China received in 1897 about the same amount as India re- 
 ceived. In "Birmania," Siam, Malacca there were in 1800, 
 1 Vicariate Apostolic, 9 priests and 9,800 Catholics. In 1898 
 there were 5 Vicariates Apostolic, 188 priests and 94,000 
 
 40. LOUVET, op. cit., p. 16. 
 
150 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Catholics. In 1800 there were 3 Vicariates Apostolic, in 
 Annam and 300,000 Catholics. In 1897 there were 8 Vicars 
 Apostolic, 261 missionaries, 481 native priests and 726,000 
 Christians. In 1898 Cambodge had 1 Vicariate Apostolic, 32 
 missionaries, 19 native priests and 27,000 Catholics. In the 
 middle of the century the Mission of Borneo was reopened and 
 since then has received about 250,000 f r. from the Society. 
 The Dutch East Indies, after having been sustained by the 
 Society for many years, in 1898 received only small subsidies. 
 In 1800 the number of Catholics in China was 202,000 divided 
 in 5 Missions. In 1897 there were 40 Missions with 40 Bishops, 
 697 missionary priests, 394 native priests and 649,000 Catho- 
 lics. The Society for the Propagation of the Faith distributed 
 in 1897 to the Missions of China 885,000 fr. In 1846 Gregory 
 XVI reestablished the Vicariate Apostolic of Japan, but the 
 missionaries could only be restored after the treaties of com- 
 merce concluded with European nations in 1861. The Church 
 of Japan was divided in 1898 into 4 Vicariates with 4 Bishops, 
 109 missionaries, 37 natives priests, more than 52,000 Cath- 
 olics. It received in 1897 143,000 f r. from the Society. Korea, 
 for such a long time persecuted with violence, in 1898 had 
 1 Bishop, 31 missionaries, 3 native priests and 32,000 Catholics. 
 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith from 1832 to 
 1898 has distributed to it about 13,000,000 fr. 
 
 Leo XIII in the Encyclical Christi Nomen which is quoted 
 in Chapter V appealed to this Society and the Schools of the 
 Orient for funds to promote the work of uniting with Rome 
 the Greek and Oriental Churches. 
 
 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith has always 
 come to the aid of the Apostolate among the schismatic 
 churches of the Oriental Rite to such an extent as its resources 
 will permit. Leo XIII asked the Central Councils to cooperate 
 in aiding him to realize the union of the schismatic Oriental 
 churches to the Roman Church and for the Latin establish- 
 ments in the Levant it put at the disposition of the Pope in 
 1895, 300,000 fr., in 1896, 200,000, in 1897, 200,000 fr. About 
 1,000,000 fr. is each year given by the Society to aid toward 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 151 
 
 union with schismatic rites and for the prosperity of the 
 Oriental Churches of the Uniate Rite. 41 
 
 AFRICA 
 
 In 1800 there were 1,500 Catholics in Northern Africa 
 and 500,000 in 1898. The total sum sent by the Central 
 Councils to the different Missions of Northern Africa is over 
 7,000,000 fr. In 1840 on the West Coast of Africa in the 
 diocese of St. Paul de Loaiida there were 8 or 10 priests and 
 700,000 Catholics. The Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith has given several million francs to this part of Africa. 
 The Vicariate of Senegarnbia alone received over 1,300,000 
 fr. The allocations made by the Society to the Missions of 
 South Africa have been very liberal. The Vicariate of Cape 
 Occidental with the Prefecture Centrale has received about 
 1,000,000 fr. since its foundation and that of Cap Est more 
 than 800,000 fr. The sums accorded by the Society to South 
 Africa have amounted to many millions of francs. Eastern 
 Africa received in 1897 over 130,000 fr. from the Society. 
 Central Africa was receiving on an average 250,000 fr. per 
 year in 1898. Madagascar in 1897 received 139,980 fr. and 
 Port Victoria received a regular allocation from the Society ; 
 other Missions received aid irregularly. 42 
 
 OCEANIA 
 
 In 1800 Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand did not 
 have a single Catholic priest. In 1898 the Catholics formed 
 a third of the total population. In 1898 the Cardinal Arch- 
 bishop of Sydney was at the head of 20 dioceses. The Church 
 of Australia with the diocese of Hobart in Tasmania received 
 more than 3,000,000 fr. from the Society. In 1898 only rarely 
 were establishments in Oceania supported by the Society, but 
 subsidies destined for the voyages of missionaries or sisters 
 were provided by the Society. New Zealand received the first 
 
 41. L'Oeuvre, etc., pp. 42-48, 1898. 
 
 42. Ut supra, pp. 48-50, 1898. 
 
152 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Catholic missionaries in 1838. In 1898 the Ecclesiastical 
 Province of Wellington had three suffragan dioceses and a 
 Catholic population of about 90,000. New Zealand has re- 
 ceived about 3,000,000 fr. since its separation from the rest of 
 Oceania, but previously it had been the principal point of 
 Western Oceania to which the Society had given about 800,000 
 fr. The other islands of Oceania had received more than 
 21,500,000 fr. from the Society up to 1898. 48 
 
 NORTH AMERICA: CANADA 
 
 In 1820 the Dominion of Canada had 1 Archbishop, 5 
 Vicars Apostolic, 302 priests and 540,000 Catholics. In 1898 
 there were 2,107,000 Catholics distributed among 7 arch- 
 dioceses and 23 dioceses, with 2,720 priests. The Society for 
 the Propagation of the Faith has liberally assisted all this 
 region of America ; but for a number of years before 1898 it 
 had suppressed its assistance to the eastern part of Canada 
 which was very rich and very prosperous. It continued to 
 come to the aid in a large way of the Vicariates Apostolic of 
 Athabaska-Mackenzie, of Saskatchewan, of the dioceses of 
 St. Boniface, of St. Albert, of New Westminister confided to 
 the Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate, of the Indian Mis- 
 sions of the Society of Jesus in Canada, in Alaska and in 
 the Rocky Mountains. 44 
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE ANTILLES 
 
 In Central America and the Islands of the Gulf of Mexico 
 the Society has also distributed its benefits. In 1898 San 
 Domingo, Jamaica, Trinidad, Curacao and British Honduras 
 received allocations from the Society. 45 - 
 
 SOUTH AMERICA 
 
 In South America the Vicariate Apostolic of Surinam, the 
 Prefecture Apostolic of Ayapock and Patagonia confided to 
 the zeal of the sons of Don Bosco received allocations. The 
 
 43. Ut supra, p. 52, 1898. 
 
 44. Ut supra, p. 50, 1898. 
 
 45. Ut supra, p. 51, 1898. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 153 
 
 Dominican Mission among the Canelos Indians also received 
 subsidies during some years, and the Central Councils ac- 
 corded at different times important sums for the voyages of 
 different missionaries. 40 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 It is not practical to give here more than a brief summary 
 of the work done by the Society for the Church in the United 
 States. 
 
 The funds received by 
 each year from the Society 
 as given by Mgr. Freri, are 
 
 the dioceses of the United States 
 for the Propagation of the Faith, 
 as follows : 
 
 Year 
 
 Eeceived 
 
 Tear 
 
 Eeceived 
 
 Tear 
 
 Eeceived 
 
 1822 
 
 $2,757.00 
 
 1857 
 
 $99,404.60 
 
 1892 
 
 $23,000.00 
 
 1823 
 
 5,200.00 
 
 1858 
 
 115,288.20 
 
 1893 
 
 16,700.00 
 
 1824 
 
 6,940.00 
 
 1859 
 
 173,623.80 
 
 1894 
 
 13,300.00 
 
 1825 
 
 10,340.00 
 
 1860 
 
 152,342.20 
 
 1895 
 
 10,800.00 
 
 1826 
 
 8,740.00 
 
 1861 
 
 118,014.00 
 
 1896 
 
 8,500.00 
 
 1827 
 
 20,700.00 
 
 1862 
 
 130,802.00 
 
 1897 
 
 11,312.50 
 
 1828 
 
 22,000.00 
 
 1863 
 
 119,800.00 
 
 1898 
 
 10,900.00 
 
 1829 
 
 24,268.00 
 
 1864 
 
 117,600.00 
 
 1899 
 
 10,292.86 
 
 1830 
 
 23,394.00 
 
 1865 
 
 124,450.00 
 
 1900 
 
 11,022.00 
 
 1831 
 
 25,294.00 
 
 1866 
 
 115,660.00 
 
 1901 
 
 28,226.00 
 
 1832 
 
 22,960.00 
 
 1867 
 
 97,260.00 
 
 1902 
 
 27,649.00 
 
 1833 
 
 19,604.00 
 
 1868 
 
 100,290.00 
 
 1903 
 
 26,524.00 
 
 1834 
 
 20,564.00 
 
 1869 
 
 99,975.00 
 
 1904 
 
 32,909.00 
 
 1835 
 
 29,053.60 
 
 1870 
 
 41,000.00 
 
 1905 
 
 41,571.82 
 
 1836 
 
 44,133.60 
 
 1871 
 
 87,200.00 
 
 1906 
 
 46,228.96 
 
 1837 
 
 37,916.20 
 
 1872 
 
 98,200.00 
 
 1907 
 
 51,645.42 
 
 1838 
 
 53,501.60 
 
 1873 
 
 75,600.00 
 
 1908 
 
 47,226.51 
 
 1839 
 
 68,025.00 
 
 1874 
 
 74,000.00 
 
 1909 
 
 55,830.18 
 
 1840 
 
 125,572.80 
 
 1875 
 
 73,040.00 
 
 1910 
 
 70,493.84 
 
 1841 
 
 122,261.00 
 
 1876 
 
 82,200.00 
 
 1911 
 
 73,716.27 
 
 1842 
 
 127,360.40 
 
 1877 
 
 67,440.00 
 
 1912 
 
 61,086.27 
 
 1843 
 
 126,259.60 
 
 1878 
 
 60,600.00 
 
 1913 
 
 87,765.47 
 
 1844 
 
 131,432.80 
 
 1879 
 
 57,080.00 
 
 1914 
 
 51,467.19 
 
 1845 
 
 107,400.00 
 
 1880 
 
 52,200.00 
 
 1915 
 
 45,613.16 
 
 1846 
 
 116,328.20 
 
 1881 
 
 56,600.00 
 
 1916 
 
 29,671.74 
 
 1847 
 
 87,980.00 
 
 1882 
 
 51,600.00 
 
 1917 
 
 81,363.54 
 
 1848 
 
 72,762.00 
 
 1883 
 
 59,360.00 
 
 1918 
 
 80,121.32 
 
 1849 
 
 95,316.00 
 
 1884 
 
 66,000.00 
 
 1919 
 
 76,992.94 
 
 1850 
 
 80,735.00 
 
 1885 
 
 60,840.00 
 
 1920 
 
 96,570.39 
 
 1851 
 
 78,287.00 
 
 1886 
 
 56,000.00 
 
 1921 
 
 101,098.85 
 
 1852 
 
 103,101.00 
 
 1887 
 
 51,400.00 
 
 
 516,592.04 
 
 1853 
 
 126,452.00 
 
 1888 
 
 42 440.00 
 
 
 
 1854 
 
 127|439!20 
 
 1889 
 
 40'080!00 
 
 
 $7,020,974.27 
 
 1855 
 
 101,084.60 
 
 1890 
 
 42,740.00 
 
 
 4T 
 
 1856 
 
 105,761.40 
 
 1891 
 
 33,920.00 
 
 
 
 46. Ut supra, pp. 51-52, 1898. 
 
 47. FRERI, op cit., in the Annals, vol. LXXXV, p. 68, 1922. 
 
154 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ALLIED AND SUBORDINATE ACTIVITIES 
 
 The methods of administration used by the Society and 
 the remarkable growth in its collections, together with its 
 accomplishments, have been treated. There are other 
 activities, which are subordinate to the main work of this 
 Society, and these must be briefly described. 
 
 One of the auxiliary functions which has largely con- 
 tributed to the success of the Society is its official organ, 
 the Annales de .la Propagation de la Foi. The natural pro- 
 cess by which this publication evolved can be traced back to 
 the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses which had been written 
 in order to place missionaries in direct contact with their 
 benefactors during the preceding century. The first number 
 of this valuable collection appeared in 1702, and the last 
 issues were printed in the reign of Louis XV. Later, in 
 1780, Father Querboeuf issued an edition of the Lettres, but 
 with a stricter attention to classification and method. The 
 edition was in 26 volumes. 1 Since that date, the Lettres have 
 often been reprinted, and in 1809-14 there appeared a choice 
 selection of the documents. The last edition is that of Paris 
 (1875). 
 
 As the natural center of the Missions of the world it ap- 
 peared logical that the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith, destined to receive alms and to distribute them accord- 
 ing to the needs of the Missions, should create an organ which 
 would be a sort of continuation of the Lettres Edifiantes. It 
 was at first decided by the Society to publish its organ under 
 the title Nouvelles des Missions; then, Annales de I' Association 
 de la Propagation de la Foi, with the sub-title Collection fai- 
 sant suite a toutes editions des Lettres Edifiantes. The first 
 volume is especially valuable to the American historian, since 
 
 1. Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, p. x, 1875; GUASCO, Les 
 sionnaires et la Science, p. 23, 1908. 
 
The Society {or the Propagation of the Faith 155 
 
 it contains a letter on the Missions of Louisiana and Badin's 
 valuable sketch of the Kentucky Missions. 
 
 This publication has spread throughout the world a 
 knowledge of the work, the fatigues, the perils and the 
 success of the Apostolic laborers, and has made known to the 
 learned as well as to the unlearned the habits and the cus- 
 toms of missionary countries which were at this epoch entirely 
 unknown; it has established a correspondence between the 
 missionaries and the whole Catholic world, and thus it has 
 interested even the least of the faithful and enabled them in 
 some way to cooperate in the accomplishment of the Divine 
 Plan. The Catholic press gave a hearty reception to this new 
 periodical. The Quotidienne wrote : ' ' Independently of the 
 great interest of the propagation of the Faith in the world, 
 they offer a wealth of ideas concerning geography, interior 
 administration, habits and customs, the political and commer- 
 cial resources of the different regions which here pass in 
 review. ' ' ' The utility of publication to the Society and to the 
 Missions results from the zeal and charity of the faithful and 
 the clergy, which it awakens and sustains. Without it, it 
 would have been difficult, if not impossible, to attract the 
 attention, to keep alive the interest, to stimulate the desire 
 to aid and to encourage the perseverance of the contributors. 
 It accomplishes this result by emphasizing, in the words of 
 the missionaries themselves, the sad conditions of the peoples 
 living in the darkness of paganism, the possibilities of their 
 conversion, their absolute poverty which makes it impossible 
 for them to support the Missions and by demonstrating the 
 results already attained. 
 
 Another important service which this publication has 
 performed, through the Society's annual financial statement 
 which it contains, is that it has thus forestalled much hostile 
 criticism of the Society's administration which otherwise 
 would have been aroused. By this publicity public powers, 
 
 2. LAUNAY, Histoire Generate de la Societe des Missions fitrangeres, 
 t. II, pp. 519, et seq. Of. La Propagation de la Foi in the Missions 
 Catholiques, t. XXVI, pp. 518, 519; ibid., t. I, p. 1, 1868; GUASCO, op. 
 cit. y p. 29, 1911. 
 
156 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 foreign governments, missionaries and the faithful were all 
 able to ascertain the exact amount of money received, the 
 expenses incurred and the Missions and religious orders sup- 
 ported by the Society. Thus suspicions and charges of par- 
 tiality in favoring the Missions of any particular country or 
 the missionaries of any particular nationality have been 
 avoided and disproved. 8 
 
 The Annales was at first annual ; two issues were published 
 in 1824 ; three in 1826 ; four in 1830 ; and after 1835, six issues 
 a year. The Annales is sent free to the chief of each group of 
 ten who circulates it among each of the group after which 
 it is returned to him and becomes his property as a recom- 
 pense for his care in encouraging its reading. It was soon 
 translated into many languages: English, Italian, Spanish, 
 Portugese, Dutch, Polish, Flemish, Basque, Maltese, German 
 and Breton. The first English edition was published in 
 Paris in the year 1838. In May, 1839, or earlier a Dublin 
 edition was begun. The American edition, published by the 
 national office of the Society in New York, dates from the 
 year 1903. In 1922, 375,000 copies of this publication were 
 printed bi-monthly in various languages. 4 
 
 It was soon found necessary to supplement the Annales by 
 the publication of a weekly periodical in order to discuss 
 many subjects which could not find a place in the Annales. 
 Les Missions Catholiques made its appearance in the year 
 1868. This weekly review is sold by yearly subscription, and 
 it soon acquired an important place among contemporary 
 publications, a place merited by the importance of its object 
 and the sublimity of its end. In it is recorded each week the 
 correspondence exchanged between apostolic men in all parts 
 of the globe concerning religion, history, geography, science 
 and industry of the most important missionary countries. A 
 quantity of the documents emanating from the Missions con- 
 cern voyages, statistics, scientific subjects, obituary notices 
 and bibliography. The text offers an interest, a variety, a 
 
 3. L'CEuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, p. 9, 1898. 
 
 4. FRERI, op. cit., in the Annals, t. LXXXV, p. 58, 1922. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 157 
 
 charm and a picturesqueness which are admirable. It is well 
 printed and richly illustrated with numerous maps and pic- 
 tures, and including photographs sent in by missionaries. 5 
 
 Among other publications of this Society must be men- 
 tioned the Almanach des Missions and the Petit Almanach de 
 la Propagation de la Foi, both of which are sold for the profit 
 of the Missions. The same can be said of the Album des 
 Missions. 6 
 
 Three very interesting and important brochures have been 
 published under the auspices of the Society which treat of 
 its origins, of its foundation, of its organization, of its his- 
 tory, of the spiritual favors accorded, of the pontifical and 
 episcopal testimonials and of the history of the Missions. The 
 first of these entitled L'CEuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, 
 published in 1898 by the Central Councils of Lyons and Paris ; 
 the second with the same title, published in 1908, and the 
 third also with the same title, published by M. Alexandre 
 Guasco, the General Secretary of the Central Council of 
 Paris, which has gone through several editions, the first of 
 which appeared in 1904, the second in 1904, and the third 
 in 1911, published in conjunction with a brochure by Mon- 
 signor Freri, The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 and the Catholic Missions, give the official history of the 
 Society. 
 
 The brochures, in which are printed the annual sermons 
 delivered by the foremost pulpit orators of France in the 
 primatial church of Lyons are published by the Society and 
 receive wide circulation and have considerable influence in 
 making the Society known and loved by the people. L'Annee 
 Apostolique gives a summary of the progress of the Catholic 
 Missions each year. A summary of the progress of the Mis- 
 sions during the 19th century is found in M. Alexandre 
 Guasco, Cent Ans d'Apostolat Catholique dans les Missions. 
 The Society renders invaluable service to the missions by 
 publishing such works as that by Louis-Eugene Louvet, Les 
 
 5. Missions Catholiques, t I, p. 1, 1868. 
 
 6. L'CEuvre, etc., p. 10, 1898. 
 
158 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Missions Catholiques au XIX e Siecle. The Society also 
 makes a practice of distributing such special works as the 
 Petit Manuel de Piete a I'Usage des Membres de VCEuvre de 
 la Propagation de la Foi, by Mgr. Andre Saint-Glair. 
 
 The American Branch of the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Faith has published two brochures by Mgr. Joseph 
 Freri, Native Clergy for Mission Countries, and The National 
 Religion of Japan. 
 
 The maps which the Society has published form a collec- 
 tion of considerable importance. In the Annales itself have 
 appeared at different periods maps of the Missions du Levant, 
 des Etats-Unis et du Canada, Missions de la Chine, VInde, 
 Tong-King, la Cochinchine, Siam et Birmanie. 1 
 
 The Missions Catholiques has made it a practice of giving 
 premiums to their subscribers of maps of different missionary 
 countries which today are sufficiently numerous to form an 
 important collection. These are also on sale in Lyons. This 
 collection includes the following : 
 
 LAUNAY, Planisphere de la Hierarche catholique a travers 
 
 le monde.* 
 
 Carte de I'Eglise catholique dans les lies Britanniques, 1910. 
 Carte de I'Eglise catholique dans les Balkans, 1911. 
 Carte des Missions Catholiques des Pays Scandinaves, 1909. 
 Carte de la Terrc Sainte, 1914. 
 Carte de la Syrie septentrionale, 1915. 
 Carte des Missions Catholiques du Siam, de la Birmanie et 
 
 du Laos, 1904. 
 
 Carte de Vlnde ecclesiastique, 1907. 
 Carte des Missions Catholiques dans I'Indo-Chine frangaise, 
 
 1888. 
 L'Eglise catholique en Chine Orientate, 1912. 
 
 7. Carte des Missions du Levant, in the Annales, t. VIII, p. 409; 
 Carte des fitats-Unis ct du Canada, in the Annales, t. IX, p. 337; 
 Carte des Missions de la Chine, in the Annales, t. X, p. 80; Carte de 
 I'Inde, in the Annales, t. XI, p. 576; Carte du Tong-King, de la 
 Cochinchine, de Siam et de la Birmanie, in the Annales, t. XII, p. 112. 
 
 8. This work is on sale at the office of the Society in Lyons but 
 was not given out as a premium. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 159 
 
 L'Eglise catholique en Chine Occidentale, 1913. 
 
 Carte des Missions catholiques au Japon, 1898. 
 
 Carte du Sahara et du nord-ouest de I'Afrique, 1895. 
 
 Carte des Missions du Soudan frangais et de la Cote occi- 
 
 dentale d'Afrique, 1897. 
 Carte des Missions de Madagascar, 1903. 
 Carte du Nord-Est Africain et du Soudan Egyptien, 1899. 
 Carte des Missions du Centre Africain, 1901. 
 Carte des Missions du Sud Africain, 1902. 
 Carte des Missions catholiques en Afrique, 1905. 
 Carte du Canada catholique, 1893. 
 Carte des Missions catholiques aux fitats-Unis, 1900. 
 Carte de rAmcrique du Sud ecclesiastique, 1908. 
 Carte des- Missions catholiques de la Melanesie, Micronesie et 
 
 Polynesie, 1896. 
 Carte des Missions catholiques en Australie, 1906. 
 
 M. Valerien Groffier has rendered a signal service to 
 Christian history by translating and enlarging Werner's 
 Katholischer Missions-Atlas which traces the ecclesiastical 
 organization of the missionary countries under the jurisdic- 
 tion of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide. By 
 indicating the precise geographical situation of hundreds of 
 Missions the name of which is familiar, but the location of 
 which on the globe more or less vaguely known, this work 
 enables us to follow the progress of the Missions. 
 
 The libraries of the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith, which are established in connection with the offices of 
 their two Central Councils in Lyons and in Paris, contain a 
 fairly good collection of publications of missionary societies, 
 of a large variety of books devoted to particular missionary 
 countries, of ecclesiastical directories, and of all the works 
 published by the Society. The library in Paris is well ar- 
 ranged and well catalogued, but there is no provision made 
 for those who are not connected with the Society to make use 
 of it. 
 
 In Lyons there was a much larger collection of books, 
 but they are neither well arranged nor well catalogued. It 
 
160 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 was quite evident that no provision had been made for per- 
 mitting outsiders to make use of the books in their possession. 
 
 Another valuable record of the progress of the Missions 
 may be found at the headquarters of the Society in Lyons; 
 not in their books, but in the thousands of mementos of mis- 
 sionary activity gathered from every quarter of the globe. 
 Instruments of war and peace, instruments of torture and 
 relics of martyrs make a collection that represents heroic 
 achievements worthy to rank with the first ages of Chris- 
 tianity. 9 This well arranged museum is laid out in two rooms, 
 one of which contains objects of general interest, whereas the 
 other is devoted exclusively to relics of confessors or martyrs. 
 The whole collection is thoroughly catalogued so that the 
 visitor can easily learn the interesting points about each 
 object. No study is more interesting for those who have 
 at heart the progress of religion and civilization; nothing 
 better shows the benevolent influence exercised by the mis- 
 sionaries of the world than the Museum of the Propagation 
 of the Faith. A few words concerning the origin of this 
 museum and the riches which it contains will not be out of 
 place. From the first years of the Society the missionaries 
 have wished to testify their gratitude toward their benefactors 
 by sending either relics or souvenirs of the apostolic laborers 
 who have died for the Faith, or of interesting and precious 
 objects which are specimens of primitive art in the countries 
 being evangelized. The Religious Congregations have added 
 other objects to this collection, and these have been admirably 
 arranged and catalogued, so that the visitor can now follow 
 step-by-step and, as it were, day by day, the progress of the 
 apostolate through the different countries. 10 
 
 Another means of publicity employed by the Society is 
 afforded by the expositions or World 's Fairs to which it sends 
 an exhibit. At Chicago its publications and its maps were 
 displayed. The exposition of Lyons in 1894, that of Paris in 
 1900, endeavored to translate the action of missionaries, which 
 
 9. FRERI, op. cit., p. 10, 1912. 
 
 10. Missions Catholiques, t. XXII, p. viii, 1890; ibid., t. XXV, p. 
 347, 1893. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 161 
 
 for the most part is moral, into a material exhibition by show- 
 ing the statistics, the maps and other exhibits which strike 
 the eye. The exhibits were of interest for the study of com- 
 parative religions as well as for geography, history, ethnog- 
 raphy, natural history, teaching, questions of interest to hos- 
 pitals and the fine arts. The publications of the Society 
 and its maps were given a prominent place. 11 These expositions 
 led Piolet to suggest that they should be transformed into a 
 museum and thus acquire a permanent character. 12 
 
 Two reasons are urged by Piolet in favor of a permanent 
 museum for all Catholic Missions : Many people are ignorant 
 of the very existence of our Missions ; even among those who 
 know of them few understood their importance. It was 
 therefore urgent, to awaken public attention, that a museum 
 of the Missions be created; to inform the public curiosity 
 more abundantly, that a large central library of the Missions 
 be organized. What value would attach to such a central 
 museum which would unite all these riches, Chinese vases, the 
 collection of all the woods of the country, of Punic and 
 Roman antiques, inscriptions, monuments, clothes, arms, uten- 
 sils of a savage people which have disappeared or is about 
 to disappear, ancient books, ancient manuscripts, codices, 
 inscriptions which at times have an inestimable value ; all 
 that is related to the local worship or superstition or customs 
 and the objects made under the direction of the missionaries. 
 Such a museum would attract visitors and awaken attention ; 
 but the curiosity aroused would demand a more ample and 
 more precise information. A library would respond to this 
 new need: it would constitute the central archives of the 
 Missions. It should be extended, like the museum to all the 
 Catholic Missions of every nationality, to those who desire to 
 study the most abundant and the most certain information. 
 To be such, in a word, that, without having consulted it, it 
 would not be permissible for any one to speak of the Missions. 
 
 11. Ut supra, t. XXVI, p. 463, et seq., 1894; ibid., t. XXXII, p. 
 97, 1900. 
 
 12. PIOLET, Eapport sur les Missions Catholiques Frangaises, p. 123, 
 Paris, 1900. 
 
162 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 It should therefore contain : all the books written or published 
 by the missionaries; all the books translated or printed or 
 illustrated by them in their printing establishments; all the 
 text books, those used for teaching and for religion, employed 
 by missionaries; all books written concerning the history or 
 the present condition of the Missions, be they favorable or 
 not ; all the reviews published by the Missions, or speaking of 
 them; all the archives of all the Missions or at least a copy 
 of these archives. To unite them, it is true, would be long 
 and costly, but though it only succeeded partially and for 
 the ancient Missions, it would already be a great attainment. 
 The simple index of the archives of the Socicte des Missions 
 Etrangeres fills 12 folio volumes. Such a collection of docu- 
 ments exists nowhere, but they are disseminated throughout 
 the entire universe, divided among some fifty Societies. He 
 who desires to write the history of our Missions is truly at a 
 loss to find his information. This library would furnish him 
 complete information at first hand. 
 
 Leo XIII was complimented on having opened the Vatican 
 Archives, says Piolet, and thus rendered less difficult the task 
 of writing the history of the Church. To give the same 
 facility to tKe historian of our Missions, this vital part of the 
 Church would be the completion of the work of Leo XIII, but 
 in the reorganization of the Society for the Propagation of 
 the Faith which apparently is under consideration, it would 
 be of untold value to the world of science, of letters, and to 
 the study of history, if the Society were to devote part of its 
 enormous funds to the creation of a Library of Books on the 
 Missions, a central Archives for all missionary societies, where 
 original and duplicate copies of documents might be housed, 
 and a museum on the scale of that at Kensington (London) 
 where under one direction all the objects of interest in the 
 field of primitive civilization might be found. 18 
 
 13. PIOLET, Nos Missions et Nos Missionaires, pp. 55-62, Paris. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 163 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES 
 
 The sources for the study of the Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Faith consist mainly of unpublished and published 
 materials. The unpublished documents are to be found in 
 the archives of the dioceses, archdioceses, Missions and relig- 
 ious orders throughout the world. Copies of the correspondence 
 which the Society carried on with the Missions are in the 
 registers of the offices of the two Councils, at Lyons and Paris. 
 The more important part of the correspondence is that which 
 has been received from the Missions themselves. This ex- 
 plains their status, their poverty, the good that could be 
 accomplished but for lack of funds, and the plans and hopes 
 for the future. These documents were sent either to the 
 Superior Council, which existed from 1822-1830 when it dis- 
 appeared in the Revolution, or to the Central Council of 
 Lyons or to that of Paris, or indirectly to one of these 
 Councils through the intermediary of some influential person 
 whose interest was felt to be advantageous to the Missions. I 
 referred the question of the American correspondence (1822- 
 1830) sent to Monseigneur le Prince de Croy, President 
 of the Superior Council of Paris, Grand Aumonier de France, 
 to M. Guasco, the present General Secretary, who replied as 
 follows: " There are no letters m tne Oeuvre (Society) con- 
 cerning the Conseil Superieur or Monseigneur de Croy, except 
 those that were published in the Annales. As regards the 
 Archives Nationales, should there have been any documents 
 concerning the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 
 the Tuileries at the time of the Revolution, they would have 
 been given up to the Archeveche perferably to the Archives 
 Nationales, and the Archeveche in its turn, would have given 
 them to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith such 
 
164 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 has not been the case, one can presume, therefore, that there 
 are no documents or that they have been destroyed during 
 that troubled period." 
 
 The correspondence for 1822-1830 sent to the Superior 
 Council of Paris has not yet been located. If it is extant, 
 it may have been intermingled with the documents received 
 by the Central Council of Lyons; but a search for it in the 
 Archives Nationales was not successful. The unpublished 
 documents for the United States are for the most part in the 
 Archives of the Central Council of Paris, where they have 
 been carefully sorted by dioceses in separate dossiers and are 
 arranged chronologically. An accurate idea of the contents 
 of this depot can be judged from the appendix which shows 
 the American dioceses which have received money from the 
 Society. It was the custom of the Society to require a report 
 from the diocese or Mission or religious community each year 
 that financial aid was given. These letters are written gen- 
 erally by the Bishop, as the Society preferred to deal with the 
 hierarchal head of each ecclesiastical territory. At times 
 these letters were written by the Chancellor or Secretary of 
 the Bishop or by one of the priests or superiors of some 
 religious community within the diocese and were at times 
 endorsed and recommended by the ordinary. The earliest 
 documents relating to the Church of the United States, i. e., 
 from 1822 to about 1838, were not to be found in Paris, nor 
 were these duplicate copies. It was necessary, therefore, to go 
 to Lyons for the material relating to these years. But another 
 difficulty presented itself at Lyons. The troublesome period 
 of the separation in 1906 caused the Central Council of that 
 city to take the precautionary measure of boxing up their 
 material and shipping it into Switzerland. It was found 
 necessary to take a trip to Fribourg in the hope of finding 
 these papers. M. Groffier, the General Secretary of the Central 
 Council of Lyons, generously offered to do this for me. His 
 plan was to go to Fribourg and to select the material which 
 I might then consult in the Lyons office. The amount of 
 important historical material to be found in these archival 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 165 
 
 depots may he judged from the time spent in translating and 
 copying the interesting parts of these letters. 
 
 Although I began the study in the library of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Faith in October, 
 
 1920, it was soon discovered that the published sources were 
 incomplete and hence unsatisfactory, and great difficulty was 
 experienced in gaining access to these archives. In January, 
 
 1921 , the Central Council of Paris granted me this permission 
 and I was given the dossiers of the American dioceses in 
 alphabetical order. It soon became evident that it would take 
 many years to translate and transcribe all this American ma- 
 terial. Some selection was forced upon me. I decided to 
 consult first the archdioceses and then those dioceses particu- 
 larly associated with the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith either on account of the amount of money given to 
 them by the Society, or on account of the prominence of the 
 Ordinary whose letters were contained therein. Much more 
 material of interest to American scholars still remains in 
 Fribourg and there is a large quantity of documents from 
 America, which have not yet been consulted, in the Paris 
 archives. It is quite possible, also, that considerable material 
 relating to the American participation in the foundation of 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Faith may be found 
 in the archives of the Grand Seminary of St. Irenaeus, Lyons, 
 France: Fr. Cholleton, the superior of the institution, knew 
 personally several American Bishops and missionaries. Mon- 
 seigneur Bechetoille, President of the Central Council of 
 Lyons and Vicar-General of Lyons, has in his possession a 
 note book of authentic copies of documents relating to the 
 Missions Etrangeres, and to Mile. Jaricot's participation in 
 the foundation, the originals of which have been sent to Rome 
 to be used in the cause of her beatification. 
 
 In Rome, in the Archives of the Sacred Congregation de 
 Propaganda Fide there are many interesting documents con- 
 cerning the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Many 
 of these have special reference to the struggle of the Society 
 to maintain unity and universality so constantly threatened by 
 
166 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 tentatives of independent national missionary societies in al- 
 most every country in Europe. The documents in Propaganda 
 referring to the relations between the American dioceses and 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Faith could only be lo- 
 cated by searching through all the material concerning each 
 diocese or each Bishop. The frequent references to M. 1'Abbe 
 Carriere, Superior of Seminary St. Sulpice, in the letters from 
 American Bishops indicated that he had exerted considerable 
 influence with the Central Council of Paris and this led me to 
 believe that in all probability many interesting letters would 
 be found in the archives of Saint-Sulpice. M. 1'Abbe Levesque, 
 the librarian and archivist, searched out all the material relat- 
 ing to the Church of the United States, but, unfortunately, 
 there were no documents which threw any light on the founda- 
 tion of the Society and very few which concerned the assis- 
 tance rendered by the Society to the Church of the United 
 States. Letters from Bishop Flaget of Bardstown, from 
 Father Richard of Detroit, and an unpublished manuscript 
 of the history of Saint Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, were 
 the most interesting materials located. Although the Sulpi- 
 cians showed considerable interest in the United States and 
 aided it with their good offices before the Central Council of 
 Paris, they never received any material aid from the Society, 
 unless it was through the Ordinary of the diocese in which 
 they were established. 
 
 The delegates of the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith in America after 1897 had their office at the St. Mary's 
 Seminary, Baltimore, and it was thought that some unpub- 
 lished documents of importance to my study would be found 
 there, but these materials were transferred when the delegate 
 moved his office to New York in 1903. In the Mother House 
 of the Congregation of the Mission at Paris it was believed 
 there would be many letters from the American seminaries 
 and missions which this Congregation established, but at the 
 time of the separation in 1906 their archives were also shipped 
 out of Paris so it was not possible to consult them. Concerning 
 the archives of the Seminaire des Missions fitrangeres, the 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 167 
 
 Superieur informed me that there was no material relative 
 to the Church of the United States, but that there were 
 letters from missionaries in Canada. In Vienna is the head- 
 quarters of the Leopoldine Association, another Foreign Mis- 
 sion association that has given much money to the Church 
 of the United States. When Dr. Guilday and I were at 
 Vienna together we procured the collection of the Bcrichte, 
 but the Vicar-General assured us that the original docu- 
 ments relating to the Church of the United States had 
 not been preserved. A third possible source was the archives 
 of the Ludwig-Missionsverein at Munich. At the request of 
 Dr. Guilday, Rev. Dr. Joseph Schabert went to Munich to 
 obtain a set of the published documents and to investigate 
 the contents of their archives. Since that date the collection 
 of documents of the Ludwig-Missionsverein has been procured 
 for the Catholic University of America, but they contain noth- 
 ing cognate to my study. Nothing of importance for my sub- 
 ject was found in the American College at Rome, or the 
 American College at Louvain. 
 
 In the archives of the Central Council of Lyons 
 and of Paris the greatest collection of the original 
 material for this work was found. Its historical value for 
 the American Church is great because the bishops wished to 
 prove that their dioceses deserved financial assistance from 
 the Society, and hence arose the necessity of presenting facts 
 about the religious situation of their dioceses, its size, its 
 population, its Catholic population, the racial and national 
 divisions of the population, the number of priests, both foreign 
 and native, the number of churches, chapels and Mission 
 stations, the number of baptisms, infant and adult, the num- 
 ber of Easter Communions, the information regarding the 
 Seminary, Colleges, boarding schools, and day schools, and the 
 religious conducting the same, with similar data for the hos- 
 pitals, orphan asylums and other charitable institutions. 
 These letters also included the plans for the succeeding year 
 and the financial expenditures involved in obtaining more 
 priests and more seminarians and providing for their support, 
 
168 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 for new or enlarged buildings such as churches, seminaries, 
 noviciates, presbyteries and monasteries, and for similar 
 requirements for educational and charitable activities. The 
 Society also desired to know the financial situation of the 
 diocese ; and the bishop was asked what was the certain income 
 for the next year, what could be expected from pew rents, 
 the sale of lands in possession of the diocese, from the volun- 
 tary contributions of the faithful or from the stole fees. In 
 a word, what was the probable amount of the accounts re- 
 ceivable for the ensuing year? On the credit side of the 
 questionnaire was to be entered the bills and accounts payable 
 item, including the debt of the diocese or of the parishes for 
 which the bishop was held responsible, both the total amount 
 and the amount due or payable during the coming year. Then 
 a statement of the expenditures required for establishments 
 already founded and the portion due during the following 
 year together with the same details for establishments to be 
 founded during the coming year. Thus it was possible to 
 construct in advance an income sheet for the ensuing year 
 and the Society then planned to assist the diocese by providing 
 a portion of the anticipated deficit. There was generally an 
 explanation of one or many of the items on this questionnaire, 
 either in the columns provided for remarks or in the letter 
 which accompanied the report. All this data was not given 
 for every diocese each year but the Central Council expressed 
 its desire to have all this information in its hands before 
 allocating the collections to the different Missions. This 
 material was too bulky to be submitted to the Directors them- 
 selves, of the Central Councils, so that in 'each case an analysis 
 of the report was made and entered in a book provided for 
 that purpose, while a duplicate copy of the report was sent 
 to the other Central Council. 
 
 Such is the nature of this original unpublished material, 
 and there is scarcely a question concerning the history of 
 the Church in the United States which does not have new 
 light thrown upon it by these documents. Being private re- 
 ports from American prelates or superiors of a religious 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 169 
 
 community to a foreign office which, it was understood, would 
 not publish them without the consent of the author and which 
 had no jurisdiction in the administration of the diocese, the 
 author might readily express his sincere conviction about 
 many subjects which he might not be able to state openly in 
 America. 
 
 Certainly he was able to speak frankly of the difficulties 
 and dangers, the loss and the gain, his plans and his hopes. 
 There are letters from about eighty American dioceses cover- 
 ing an average period of about thirty years. In addition to 
 the diocesan letters there are letters from some religious orders 
 which received money directly from the Society independent 
 of or in addition to what they may have obtained from the 
 Ordinary in whose diocese they were established, e. g. Jesuits, 
 Vincentians, Oblates, etc. 
 
 The published sources for the study of the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Faith consist chiefly of the collection 
 of the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi. 1 The first number 
 appeared in 1822 in the form of a modest pamphlet circulated 
 among the members of the newly founded Association. It 
 contained a long letter about the missions of Louisiana 
 (Diocese of New Orleans) and another about those of Ken- 
 tucky (Diocese of Bardstown). Since then the Annales have 
 appeared regularly and have preserved the same character 
 and almost the same modest form without any pretense to 
 literary or scientific achievement. Nevertheless the humble 
 publication contains invaluable information for the religious 
 history of the countries whose evangelization it narrates. 2 In 
 the beginning it contained the correspondence between mis- 
 sionaries (including bishops and religious superiors), and 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, or their super- 
 iors, relatives, friends or benefactors, giving an account of 
 their situation, their labors, their success and whatever they 
 considered worthy of attention. In this regard it would be 
 well to quote a word from the preface of the monumental 
 
 1. Encyclopedic des Sciences Eeligieuses, p. 207, Paris. 
 
 2. FKERI, op. cit. 
 
170 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 work of L. E. Louvet Les Missions Catholiques au XIX e 
 Siecle : ' i I do not pretend to be believed on my own word. I 
 advance nothing which I have not found in the official col- 
 lections, the Annales of the Propagation of the Faith and 
 those of the Sainte-Enfance, the Bulletin des E coles d' Orient, 
 the Missions Catholiques, the letters and reports of mission- 
 aries, all the venerable documents which inform us day by 
 day of the labors, the sufferings and the victories of the 
 Apostolate. One who disdainfully rejected such evidence 
 would not be free from malice ; several have come to us sealed 
 with the blood of martyrs. According to the word of Pascal 
 'one ought to believe witnesses who have suffered death.' ' 
 Although many of these letters are of the same high 
 standard as the unpublished letters described above, at times 
 the names and dates are missing. The letters may have been 
 " edited." It may have been found necessary to suppress 
 portions of them, and the questionnaire itself with all the 
 precise information it contains is not published. The letters 
 or articles were, moreover, written or selected at times not 
 with the intention of showing precisely and in detail the full 
 extent of the needs of the Mission or the diocese and all the 
 data concerning the employment of the funds distributed and 
 thus enabling one to gain an insight into the exact service 
 rendered by the society to that diocese or Mission. At least 
 this information was not continuously shown for every year, 
 as can be seen in the unpublished letters which were used 
 for determining the allocations. But often the published 
 letters were selected because they were edifiantes et curieuses 
 edifying and interesting, with the aim of increasing dona- 
 tions, advertising the Society, glorifying the missionaries and 
 stimulating vocations. To quote from the Annales them- 
 selves : ' ' There is no need of mentioning that news is taken 
 from the most authentic sources and that it is only published 
 with the special approbation of the bishops or chiefs of mis- 
 sions." 3 At times the editors of the Annales and even the 
 Central Council complained about the scarcity of information 
 
 3. Annales, t. I, fasc. i, p. 5. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith ' 171 
 
 and the infrequency of letters from the United States. Bishop 
 Rosati, in a letter, August 3, 1828, explains: "The reason 
 of the silence of most of our priests is, I believe, the persuasion 
 which they have of the little interest which an account of 
 their labors, could excite in the faithful of Europe, who gen- 
 erally expect to find something very extraordinary in the 
 occupation of a missionary living at the extremity of the 
 civilized world. ' ' * The editor of the Annales asserted in 1830 
 that ' * our modest Catholic missionaries furnish us scarcely 
 sufficient material to publish, four times a year, a little 
 pamphlet of a hundred pages for the edification of the pious 
 persons who cooperate in their support." In the Missions 
 Catholiques the nature of the material published in the 
 Annales is described as "the most important, it is that which 
 constitutes, properly speaking, the materials for the history 
 of the church in the countries of the Missions. They will 
 continue to justify their title in editing the acts of martyrs 
 and of confessors and in ascertaining the general progress 
 of the Apostolate. " 6 
 
 In order to estimate the services rendered by the Annales, 
 one must not lose sight even of the points of view, ethno- 
 graphic, geographic and historical of distant countries, that 
 were not available at the moment of their publication. The 
 Annales remain no less, a most precious collection, containing 
 details which often afford great interest; details which were 
 observed by the very men who were not content to live in 
 the maritime or commercial cities, but who penetrated as far 
 as the smallest settlements. Being a popular publication, 
 circulating among all classes, its appeal was however popular. 
 
 Like the first Apostles who wrote to the different churches, 
 the missionaries were always very careful to keep the Chris- 
 tion people informed concerning their works, by narrating, 
 either to their superiors, to princes or to important person- 
 ages who were their benefactors, the different episodes of their 
 
 4. Ut supra, t. Ill, p. 545. 
 
 5. Ut supra, t. IV, p. 185. 
 
 6. Missions Catholiques, t. I, p. 1, 1868. 
 
172 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 diversified life, their fatigues, their labors, their successes. 
 They found in this custom the means of instruction, of sus- 
 taining vocations, and of engaging pious souls to aid them, 
 with their prayers and their generosities. 7 A need was felt 
 for uniting the letters of all the missionaries into one collec- 
 tion which became the Lettres Edifiantes. These letters, at 
 first given without order, were later the object of a new 
 edition divided into four parts. The first was consecrated to 
 the Levant, the second to America, the third to the Indies, the 
 fourth to China, to Cochinchina and to Tonkin. The Lettres 
 Edifiantes soon formed such an important collection that 
 there were editions composed of a choice of the most interest- 
 ing Lettres. Thus the first collection of this nature, published 
 in 1809, through the care of a canon of Notre Dame of Paris, 
 was re-edited and enlarged in 1824. A new series of the 
 Lettres Edifiantes entitled Nouvelles Lettres Edifiantes ap- 
 peared in volumes by Adrien le Clere in the years 1818, 
 1820, 1821, 1823. 
 
 There is no justification for the harsh criticism of the 
 Annales by the Encyclopedic des Sciences Religieuses to the 
 effect that the news which this collection (Lettres Edifiantes 
 and the Annales) is not always accurate: ''But the inexacti- 
 tude of many of their affirmations has been so peremptorily 
 demonstrated that one hesitates very much before according 
 his confidence to the other accounts of such suspected wit- 
 nesses. The other Catholic documents do not appear in gen- 
 eral to merit much more confidence and impartial information 
 to control their affirmations is very often lacking us." 8 
 
 In the first issue of the Missions Catholiques the editor, 
 in describing the scope of this weekly journal, spoke of the 
 number of readers who were desirous of following, with their 
 mind as well as with their heart, the advance of the mission- 
 aries in distant continents or in unknown islands, who are 
 interested in the least details of these long and perilous 
 voyages. They wish to know day by day, so to speak, the 
 
 7. GUASCO, op. cit., p. 27. 
 
 8. Encyclopedic des Sciences Eeligieuses, p. 207. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 173 
 
 works of these Apostolic laborers. They esteem that even 
 to only consider the human side of these things, of such 
 voyages, of such labors, merits the attention of the educated 
 world. Are not the missionaries the most serious of observers ? 
 The knowledge of the language and the customs of the peoples 
 whom they evangelize naturally places them in a position to 
 gain exact notions concerning history, geography and the 
 arts and sciences. 9 Much of the historical material is found 
 in articles written by missionaries which often are in serial 
 form running through several issues. In it are reproduced 
 the interesting historical occurrences under the heading 
 Ephemerides which are at times closely associated with the 
 history of the Church in the United States. The official let- 
 ters of the bishops or religious superiors do not very often 
 find their way into this publication, but it contains the 
 Pontifical encyclicals and briefs, the acta of national and 
 provincial councils and the sermons of celebrated orators. 
 Some of this material is usually found in both the Annales 
 and the Missions Catholiques. 
 
 Other material for the study of the Missions in general 
 as well as for the Missions in the United States in particular 
 is to be found in the contemporary literary sources published 
 by the different religious orders. The Annales de la Congre- 
 gation de la Mission contains biographical sketches of all the 
 members of that congregation shortly after their death. 
 Besides the general information concerning their activity in 
 the United States there is found much material relating to 
 Baltimore, the Barrens, Mo., Cape Girardeau, Mo., Donaldson- 
 ville, La., Emmitsburg, Md., Galveston, Texas, Gerniantown, 
 Pa., La Salle, 111., Los Angeles, Calif., Niagara, N. Y., New 
 Orleans, La., Sante Genevieve, Mo., St. Louis, Mo., and San 
 Francisco, Calif. The index to the Annales de la Congregation 
 de la Mission is well arranged and is of great aid to the 
 schqlar. 
 
 The Woodstock Letters is a private publication of the 
 Fathers of the Society of Jesus and, although of an entirely 
 
 9. Missions Catholiques, t. I, p. 1, 1868. 
 
174 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 different nature from the famous Jesuit Relations, it is 
 nevertheless of considerable interest as a contemporary lit- 
 erary source. The index to this publication, covering the 
 years from 1872 to 1896, is divided into three parts, first, 
 a general list of the articles, second, an index of the authors, 
 third, sketches and obituary notices. The index was pub- 
 lished in 1898. The Society of Jesus received $263,000 to be 
 used in the United States, directly from the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Faith, in addition to what their various 
 establishments may have received from the Ordinaries of the 
 dioceses in which they were located. Consequently, the 
 Woodstock Letters are of considerable interest to one who 
 desires to trace the results of these alms from the Society of 
 the Propagation of the Faith. 
 
 The printed sources for the study of the results of the 
 activity of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the 
 United States are partly to be found in the publications of 
 the American Catholic historical societies. The work of 
 Martin I. J. Griffin, who was an indefatigable delver into 
 the by-ways of the past. and who published a large amount 
 of original data which is of much value and assistance to the 
 historian of the development of the Church in the United 
 States, is found in the two quarterly publications, the Amer- 
 ican Catholic Historical Researches and the Records of the 
 American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. The 
 Historical Records and Studies of the United States Catholic 
 Historical Society in New York is also a valuable source pub- 
 lication. Among the more recent historical publications the 
 Catholic Historical Review is found by scholars to be indis- 
 pensable for the history of any place or any period of the 
 Church in the United States. The other local publications 
 such as the Illinois Catholic Historical Review, the St. Louis 
 Catholic Historical Review, and the Acta and Dicta of St. 
 Paul, are each of value for the history of their locality. In 
 the Catholic Encyclopedia there is an article by Monsignor 
 Joseph Freri on the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. 
 There are also many articles on the different dioceses, bishops 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 175 
 
 and nationalities. In the Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique, 
 Father G. Andre has an excellent article upon Catholicism 
 in America. The splendid map of the ecclesiastical provinces 
 and another showing the former location of the Indian tribes 
 in this work are of considerable aid to the reader. Among 
 all the works treating of the history of the Missions in general 
 that which is preeminent is the monumental work by M. 
 1'Abbe L. E. Louvet, Les Missions Catholiques au XI X c 
 Siecle. Without it the author of this work would have been 
 at a loss to find data upon many subjects which he has treated. 
 Father J. B. Piolet, both in the great work Les Missions 
 Catholiques Frangaises au XIX e Siecle, as well as his broch- 
 ure Nos Missions et Nos Missionaires and in others which 
 he published with the collaboration of Ch. Vadot upon the 
 missions of China, India and Africa, are very useful. Adrien 
 Launay, in his L'Histoire Generate de la Societe des Missions 
 fitrangcres, provides the student in search of the antecedents 
 of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith much impor- 
 tant material which is ordinarily overlooked. For the history 
 of the Church in the United States, John Gilmary Shea, 
 especially in his first two volumes, has treated his subject in 
 a masterly way, and although the two latter volumes are 
 inferior still they are very useful to the student. Shorter 
 works on the history of the Church in America are provided 
 in O 'Gorman's History of the Roman Catholic Church in the 
 United States and in the work of Father A. Andre, Le Catho- 
 licisme aux Etats-Unis. Father Thomas Hughes, in his 
 History of the Society of Jesus in North America, provides a 
 wealth of material which is not to be found elsewhere. The 
 biographical sketches in the Metropolitan Catholic Almanac 
 and Laity's Directory as well as the concise information in 
 this directory concerning the different dioceses and ecclesi- 
 astical institutions contain much useful material. For the 
 educational work of the Church, which was made possible in 
 part by the financial assistance obtained from the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Faith, the works by Father Burns 
 are invaluable. For a study of the movements which cul- 
 
176 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 minated in the foundation of the Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Faith, the biography of Miss Jaricot by M. <L 
 Maurin, although inclining more towards hagiography than 
 to impartial history, is nevertheless of distinct value. The 
 two notices published by the Central Councils on L'Oeuvre 
 de la Propagation de la Foi in 1898 and 1908, together with 
 the brochure of the same title by M. Alexandre Guasco, the 
 General Secretary of the Central Council of Paris, and that 
 by Mgr. Joseph Freri, the delegate of the Society in the 
 United States, are all official, thoroughly reliable, and sincere 
 treatments of the foundation, organization, progress and 
 results of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Rev. 
 F. Demartino's work, Sinossi delle piu interessanti notizle, 
 etc., was found to be rather popular in its treatment of this 
 subject. 
 
 A graphic classification of this material, including only the 
 main sources and books used in the composition of this work, 
 may be given as follows : 
 
 I SOURCES 
 A STILL IN MANUSCRIPT 
 
 These have already been described above. The main arch- 
 ival depots are those of the Propaganda, in Rome, the general 
 archives of the Society at Paris, and the other archival source- 
 material, either at Lyons or in Fribourg. There is no necessity 
 of giving a tabulated text of diocesan or corporative centres. 
 
 B PRINTED 
 
 The most interesting general account of the printed publi- 
 cations concerning the Society is that contained in the 
 Discours by the celebrated Father Joseph Tissot, at Lyons, 
 May 23, 1894. 
 
 1 PUBLICATIONS OP THE SOCIETY 
 
 Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, Vol. 1, contains the 
 Annales for the first four years ; after 1840 there is one 
 volume a year, and the 1922 volume is the ninety-fifth. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 111 
 
 2 PUBLICATIONS OF MISSIONARY ORDERS 
 
 Annales de la Congregation de la Mission. (Lazarists or 
 
 Vincentians. ) 
 
 Woodstock Letters. (American Jesuits.) 
 Missions de la Congregation des Missionaires Oblats de Marie 
 
 Immaculce. 
 
 7nnales des Sacrcs-Coeurs. (Picpus Fathers.) 
 Bulletin des Ecoles Chretiennes. (Christian Brothers.) 
 Annee Dominicaine. 
 Bulletin Trimestriel des Anciens Eleves de Saint Sulpice. 
 
 3 AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS 
 
 American Catholic Historical Researches. 
 
 Records of American Catholic Historical Society (Philadel- 
 phia ) . 
 
 Historical Records and Studies of the United States Catholic 
 Historical Society (New York). 
 
 Catholic Historical Review (Washington, D. C.). 
 
 Illinois Catholic Historical Review (Chicago). 
 
 St. Louis Catholic Historical Review (St. Louis, Mo.). 
 
 Acta and Dicta (St. Paul). 
 
 H_BOOKS 
 I REPERTORIES 
 
 The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York). 
 
 Encyclopedia Brittanica. 
 
 Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (Hastings). 
 
 La Grande Encyclopedic (Paris). 
 
 Encyclopedic des Sciences Religieuses (Paris). 
 
 Encyclopedic Theologique (Paris) 1863. 
 
 Realencyklopodie fur protestantische Theologie und Kirche. 
 
 Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique (Vacant) Paris, 1900. 
 
 Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Geographic Ecclesiastiques 
 
 (Paris, 1913). 
 Kirchenlexicon. 
 
178 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 I DIDACTIC WORKS 
 
 I. GENERAL WORKS 
 
 A. MISSIONS 
 1. IN GENERAL 
 
 The Catholic Foreign Mission Field and the Society of the 
 
 Propagation of the Faith. Two papers read at the Missionary 
 Conference held at Washington, D. C. (April 6-12, 1904), 
 by the REV. J. FRERI, D. C. L., National Director and the 
 REV. JAS. A. WALSH, Boston Diocesan Director of the 
 Propagation of the Faith. 
 
 HENRION, Histoire Generate des Missions (1219-1844) Paris, 
 1850. 
 
 LOUVET^ Les Missions Catholiques au XIX e Siecle (Paris, 
 1894). 
 
 PIOLET, Les Missions Catholiques Frangaises au XIX e Siecle, 
 (Paris, 1903). 
 
 PIOLET, Les Missions Catholiques Frangaises (Paris, 1900). 
 
 PIOLET, La France Hors de France (Paris, 1900). 
 
 PIOLET, Nos Missions et Nos Missionnaires (Paris, 1904). 
 
 GROFFIER, Hcros Trop Oublies de Notre Epopee Coloniale 
 (Paris, 1906). 
 
 LEROY-BEAULIEU, Les Congregations Religieuses et L' Expan- 
 sion de la France (Paris, 1904). 
 
 GUASCO, Cent ans d'Apostolat Catholique dans les Missions 
 (1800-1900) Paris, 1900. 
 
 WERNER, Atlas des Missions Catholiques (Fribourg, 1886). 
 
 MARSHALL, Christian Missions, Their Agents and Their Re- 
 sults (London, 1863). 
 
 MOORE, The Expansion of Christendom and the Naturalization 
 of Christianity in the Orient in the XIX Century (Lon- 
 don, 1920). 
 
 2. IN PARTICULAR COUNTRIES 
 
 PIOLET- VADOT, La Religion Catholique en Chine. 
 PIOLET- VADOT, L'Eglise Catholique en Indo-Chine. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 179 
 
 PIOLET-VADOT, L'Eglisc Catholique dans le Continent Noir. 
 PIOLET-VADOT, L'Eglise Catholique aux Indes. 
 
 3. MISSIONS OF PARTICULAR ORDERS 
 
 HEIMBUCIIER, Die Or den und Kongregationen der Kath- 
 olischen Kirche, 3 volumes Paderborn, 1907. 
 
 Memoir e Historique sur les Constitutions de la Congregation 
 des Missions Etrangeres. 
 
 LAUNAY, L'Histoire Generate de la Societc des Missions 
 Etrangeres. 
 
 La Societe des Missions Etrangeres (Paris, 1919). 
 
 4. PROTESTANT MISSIONS 
 
 The most important organization, whose history parallels 
 that of the Society the first hundred years is the Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge, which was founded in 1698 
 at London. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
 was founded in 1701, at London, for special missionary work 
 in the United States, Cf . SEWALL, The Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge (London, 1885) and An Important 
 Chapter in English Church History, the S. P. C. K. (London, 
 1900). 
 PISANI, Les Missions Protestantes a la Fin du XIX G Siecle 
 
 (Paris, 1903). 
 BALDWIN, Foreign Missions of the Protestant Churches 
 
 (Chicago, 1900). 
 MONDAIN, Un Siecle de Mission Protestante a Madagascar 
 
 (Paris, 1920). 
 
 DIETERLEN, Pourquoi les Missions? (Paris, 1920). 
 Almanack des Missions (Montpelier, 1921). 
 
 B CHURCH HISTORIES 
 
 Apart from the general Church histories of Hergenrother, 
 Kraus, Funk and others, the work which gave special direc- 
 tion to this volume is : 
 MOURRET, Histoire Generate de VEglise (Paris, 1920). 
 
180 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Other works of value are : 
 PECHENARD, Un Siecle de Mouvement du Monde 1800-1900 
 
 (Paris, 1899). 
 FORBES, L'Eglise Catholique au Dix-Neuvieme Siecle (1800- 
 
 1900) (Paris, 1903). 
 LORETTO, Petite Histoire de L'Eglise Catholique au XlX e 
 
 Siecle (Paris, 1909). 
 BAUNARD, Un Siecle de L'Eglise de France, 1800-1900 (Paris, 
 
 1919). 
 
 C CHURCH HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES 
 
 BAIRD, La Religion aux Etats-Unis D'Amerique (Paris, 1844). 
 VICOMTE DE MEAUX, L'Eglise Catholique et la Liberte aux 
 
 Etats-Unis (Paris, 1893). 
 
 JANNET, Les Etats-Unis Contemporains (Paris, 1876). 
 CHEVALIER, Lettres sur L'Amerique du Nord (Paris, 1837). 
 DETOCQUEVILLE, The Republic of the United States of 
 
 America. 
 
 SHEA, JOHN GILMARY, The Catholic Church in the United 
 States. 
 
 The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, Volume 1, 1521- 
 1763. 
 
 The Life and Times of Archbishop Carroll, Volume 2, 
 1763-1815. 
 
 History of the Catholic Church in the United States, 
 
 Volume 3, 1808-15 to 1843, Volume 4, 1843-1866. 
 O 'GORMAN, A History of the Roman Catholic Church in the 
 
 United States (New York, 1895). 
 ANDRE, Le Catholicisme aux Etats-Unis de L'Amerique du 
 
 Nord (Paris, 1910). 
 ANDRE, Une Page D 'Histoire sur les Associations Cultuelles 
 
 (Paris, 1907). 
 ANDRE, Luttes pour la Liberte de L'Eglise Catholique aux 
 
 Etats-Unis (Paris, 1907). 
 HUGHES, THOMAS, S. J., History of the Society of Jesus in 
 
 North America, 4 vols. (London, 1910-17). 
 SHEA, JOHN GILMARY, History of the Catholic Missions Among 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 181 
 
 the Indian Tribes of the United States, 1529-1854, New 
 
 York, 1855. 
 The Laity's Directory to the Church Service, for the Year 
 
 of Our Lord, 1822. 
 The Metropolitan Catholic Almanack and Laity's Directory, 
 
 1833. 
 
 The Catholic Directory. 
 SPALDING, M. J., Sketches of the Early Catholic Missions of 
 
 Kentucky (Louisville, 1844). 
 TIMON, Missions in Western New York and Church History 
 
 of the Diocese of Buffalo (Buffalo, 1862). 
 
 II. SPECIAL WORKS 
 
 BURNS, Catholic Education (New York, 1917). 
 
 BURNS, The Principles, Origin and Establishment of the 
 
 Catholic School System in the United Stales (New York, 
 
 1912). 
 BURNS, The Growth and Development of the Catholic School 
 
 System in the United States (New York, 1912). 
 L'CEuvre dc la Propagation de la Foi (Paris, 1898). 
 L'CEuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, Dix Annces D'Apos- 
 
 tolat Catholique dans les Missions, 1898-1907 (Lyons, 
 
 1908). 
 
 GUASCO, L'CEuvre de la Propagation de la Foi (Paris, 1911). 
 FRERI, The Society for the Propagation of the Faith and the 
 
 Catholic Missions (New York, 1922). 
 DEMARTINO, Sinossi dclle piu interessanti notizie sull 'Opera 
 
 dclla Propagazione della Fede (Sorrento, 1893). 
 STEINER, History of Education (Washington, 1894). 
 
 Ill 
 
 BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 MAURIN, Vie Nouvclle de Pauline-Marie Jaricot (Paris, 1892). 
 MASSON, Pauline-Marie Jaricot (Lyons, 1899). 
 HuEN-Du BOURG, Vie du Cardinal de Cheverus (Paris, 1841). 
 'DANIEL, The Right Rev. Edward Dominic Fenwick, 0. P. 
 (Washington, 1921). 
 
182 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 LAVEILLE, Le Pere De Smet (Liege, 1907). 
 DESGEORGE, Mgr. Flaget, Eveque de Bardstown et Louisville 
 (Paris, 1855). 
 
 IV 
 
 PERIODICALS 
 
 Le Correspondent, Tome 284 (Nouv. Serie: 248 e ) (Septem- 
 ber 25, 1921). 
 
 Etudes, Tome 16?e May 5, 1921 (Paris). 
 L'Echo de Paris, February 14, 1921. 
 L } 'Action Catholique, October 19, 1921 (Montreal). 
 L'Osservatore Romano, 27 Gennalo, 1921 (Rome). 
 The Western Tablet, March 27, 1852 (Chicago). 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 183 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 * 
 
 At the conclusion of this general survey of the foundation, 
 organization, administration and success of the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Faith during the first hundred years 
 of its existence, it is fitting that the reader's attention should 
 be drawn expressly to the fact that the great Church of the 
 United States which has benefited so much from the generous 
 funds of the Society has a history special to itself and deserves 
 a separate volume of its own. The phenomenal growth of the 
 Catholic Faith in this country since the consecration of John 
 Carroll as its first bishop in 1790, has no parallel in history. 
 From every part of Europe immigrants came, and with the 
 many unforeseen difficulties they met here in their new homes, 
 they looked to their native lands for help and for encourage- 
 ment. The Societies of Vienna and of Munich did splendid 
 work in supporting the people of Germany and Austria in 
 the development of their religious life in this country; but 
 over and above their assistance, the Society of Lyons and 
 Paris came to the aid of the bishops, priests and people, 
 without distinction, in the colossal task which faced them. 
 Consequently the Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 has interwoven its own story into the story of Catholicism's 
 advance in the New World, and every advance it made in 
 science, in literature, in the apostolate, of the Gospel, of edu- 
 cation and of social welfare, has its corresponding effect upon 
 the inner life of the Church in this country. 
 
 During the past few years, especially since the time that 
 the Church in the United States was removed from the juris- 
 diction of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide 
 (1908), a movement has been supported by members of the 
 American Hierarchy for the purpose of bringing within the 
 control of the American Episcopate the disbursement of all 
 funds gathered in this country for the upkeep of the Missions. 
 
184 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 This sentiment was expressed in the Pastoral Letter of the 
 American Hierarchy in 1919, and has since been under con- 
 sideration by the authorities at Rome. 
 
 Eecently (Dec. 16, 1921), Cardinal Van Rossum, Prefect 
 of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda wrote to Arch- 
 bishop Moeller, former Chairman of the Department of Mis- 
 sions, Home and Foreign, of the National Catholic Welfare 
 Council, and now one of the Board of Governors of the Amer- 
 ican Board of Catholic Missions, to the effect that his Holiness, 
 Benedict XV, in an audience granted December 12, had rati- 
 fied and confirmed the American plan for promoting mission- 
 ary activity. The letter is as follows : 
 
 Roma, 16 Dicembre, 1921. 
 Illme. ac Revme. Domine. 
 
 Cum amplitude tua Episcoporum Comitatus pro Missionibus cath- 
 olicis adiuvandis vota ac desideria in congressu hierarchiae Americae 
 Septentrionalis superiore septembri habito manifestata SSmo. Dno. 
 Nostro retulerit Consociationis illius ad probationer! necnon spirituales 
 favores enixe expostulans, benigne voluit Summus idem Pontifex ut res, 
 duabus iam vicibus ab hac S. C. Christiano Nomini Propagando per- 
 pensa, tertio tandem ab eadem examinaretur. 
 
 Porro Emi Patres in consessu diei 5 Decembris, disaptato denuo 
 integro negotio, in hoc demum convenerunt ut S. C. paratam se ac 
 propensam declararet ad annuendum desideriis saepius ab Episcopis 
 Americae Septentrionalis expressis. 
 
 Simul tamen voluerunt ut antequam gratia coneedatur et super hac 
 re rescriptum detur S. Congregation! manifestaretur quota pars totius 
 collectae pro Missionibus exteris reservetur arbitrio S. Sedis distribuenda. 
 
 Quam Emorum, Patrum sententiam SSmus., Dnus., Noster Benedictus 
 Div. Prov. P. P. XV, in audientia diei 12 Decembris Sacrae huius Con- 
 gregationis Secretario concessa ratam habuit et confirmavit. 
 
 Quae omnia libenter Tecum eiusdem Summi Pontificis iussu, com- 
 nmnico ut Episcopis omnibus Comitatu adherentibus referas, earn spem 
 nutriens fore ut brevi, clarum responsam ab A. T. excipiam quo 
 aequivocatione omni sublata, negotium hoc, magni momenti rite citoque 
 expediatur. 
 
 Interim vero precor Deum ut Amplitudini Tuae donis cumulatis- 
 simus faveat. 
 
 Addmus Servus 
 
 G. M. Van Rossum 
 Praef. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 185 
 
 More recent decisions of the Congregation of Rites pro- 
 vide for the insertion of an invocation in the Litany of the 
 Saints and for a Votive Mass of the Propagation of the Faith. 
 These decisions are as follows : 
 
 Bescripta Ad Augendam Celebritatem Sollemnium Tcrtio Exeunte 
 
 Saeculo Ab Instituta Sacra Congregations De Propaganda 
 
 Fidei Indictorum. 
 
 I 
 
 De Additione Opportunae Invocations Litaniis Sanctorum 
 
 Beatissimo Padre, 
 
 La Commissione per i festeggiamenti del centenario della S. Con- 
 gregazione. di Propaganda, presieduta sall'Emo Cardinale Prefetto della 
 medesima, supplica instantemente la Santita Vostra perche voglia 
 benignamente degnarsi di approvare la seguente invocazione e di dare 
 ordine che venga inserita nelle Litanie dei Santi: 
 
 Ut omnes errantcs ad unitatem Ecclcsiae revocare, et infideles uni- 
 versos ad Evangelii lumen perducere digneris: Te rogamus, audi nos. 
 
 ROMANA 
 
 Sanctissimus Domimis Noster Pius Papa XI, referente infrascripto 
 Cardinal! Sacrae Rituum Congregationi Praefecto, suprascriptam in- 
 vocationem pro privata et publica recitatione, necnon pro additione 
 Litaniis Sanctorum post invocationem Ut cuncto populo christiano, etc., 
 approbare et ad universam Ecclesiam extendere dignatus est. Contrariis 
 non obstantibus quibuscumque. Die 22 martii, 1922. 
 
 . A. Card. Vico, Ep. Portuen,. et S. Rufinae, 
 
 S. E. C. Praefectus. 
 L. S. Alexander Verde, Secrctarius. 
 
 II. 
 
 De Celebratione Missae Votivae Pro Fidei Propagations Semel in 
 Anno in Qualibet Dioccesi. 
 
 Beatissimo Padre, 
 
 La Commissione per i festeggiamenti del terzo centenario della S. 
 Congregazione di Propaganda, presieduta dall'Emo Cardinale Prefetto 
 della medesima, suppliea umilmente la Santita Vostra perche voglia 
 benignamente disporre che in ogni diocesi sia celebrata una volta 1'anno, 
 in giorno da stabilirsi dai rispettivi Ordinari, la Messa votiva de Fidei 
 Propagation, nell'intento di eccitare cosi maggiormente il clero a favore 
 delle sacre mission! ed ottenere dal Signore gli aiuti necessari per il 
 maggior sviluppo delle medesime. 
 
186 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 ROMANA 
 
 Sanctiisimus Dominus Noster Pius Papa XI, his precibus ab infra- 
 
 scripto Cardinali Saerae Eituum Congregationi Praefecto relatis, be- 
 
 nigne annuit pro gratia iuxta petita, ita tamen, ut praedicta Missa 
 
 votiva de Propagaiione Fidei cum Gloria et Credo celebrari possit semel 
 
 in anno diebus ab Ordinario cuiusque loci designandis, exceptis tamen 
 
 Festis duplicibus I et II classis, Dominicis maioribus, necnon Octavis 
 
 I et II ordinis, Feriis et Vigiliis quae sint ex privilegiatis : servatis 
 
 Kubricis. Contrariis non obstantibus quibuscumque. Die 22 martii, 1922. 
 
 A. Card. Vico, Ep. Pottuen. et S. Rufinae, 
 
 S. E. C. Praefectus. 
 
 Alexander Verde, Secretarius 
 L. S. 
 
 ( Acta Apostolicae Sedis Vol. XIV. No. 7, 
 3 April, 1922, pp. 200-201). 
 
 No tribute need be paid to those who have done noble 
 service in Paris and in Lyons, in directing the work of cooper- 
 ating with the Catholic hierarchy of the United States in their 
 devotion to the Church of Christ. From the very origin of 
 the Society, its leaders have desired to remain unknown, and, 
 in fact, unseen. Theirs has been the greater plan of working 
 in the quiet for the spread of the Faith, and the rounding-out 
 of the first hundred years of the activities of the Society they 
 have strengthened and solidified with their unstinted effort 
 is the best tribute that might be offered in this centenary year. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 TOTAL RECEIPTS OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE 
 PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH 
 
 
 frs. 
 
 
 frs. 
 
 frs. 
 
 1822 
 
 22,915 
 
 1866 
 
 5,145,558 
 
 1910 
 
 7,088,690 
 
 1823 
 
 49,487 
 
 1867 
 
 5,149,918 
 
 1911 
 
 7,382,319 
 
 1824 
 
 82,259 
 
 1868 
 
 5,308,867 
 
 1912 
 
 8,178,902 
 
 1825 
 
 122,598 
 
 1869 
 
 5,217,092 
 
 1913 
 
 8,114,983 
 
 1826 
 
 104,888 
 
 1870 
 
 4,198,867 
 
 1914 
 
 5,592,642 
 
 1827 
 
 254,993 
 
 1871 
 
 5,020,897 
 
 1915 
 
 6,275,987 
 
 1828 
 
 267,269 
 
 1872 
 
 5,602,645 
 
 1916 
 
 6,334,565 
 
 1829 
 
 300,659 
 
 1873 
 
 5,524,175 
 
 1917 
 
 6,778,816 
 
 1830 
 
 293,082 
 
 1874 
 
 5,485,515 
 
 1918 
 
 8,005,704 
 
 1831 
 
 308,936 
 
 1875 
 
 5,797,463 
 
 1919 
 
 17,929,292 
 
 1832 
 
 309,947 
 
 1876 
 
 5,930,950 
 
 1920 
 
 
 1833 
 
 354,345 
 
 1877 
 
 6,142,926 
 
 1921 
 
 
 1834 
 
 404,727 
 
 1878 
 
 6,591,741 
 
 
 
 1835 
 
 541,675 
 
 1879 
 
 6,031,648 
 
 
 
 1836 
 
 729,867 
 
 1880 
 
 6,020,039 
 
 
 
 1837 
 
 927,304 
 
 1881 
 
 6,906,058 
 
 
 
 1838 
 
 1,343,640 
 
 1882 
 
 6,414,438 
 
 
 
 1839 
 
 1,895,682 
 
 1883 
 
 6,370,516 
 
 
 
 1840 
 
 2,473,578 
 
 1884 
 
 6,832,518 
 
 
 
 1841 
 
 2,752,214 
 
 '1885 
 
 6,629,258 
 
 
 
 1842 
 
 3,233,486 
 
 1886 
 
 6,649,952 
 
 
 
 1843 
 
 3,562,088 
 
 1887 
 
 6,462,276 
 
 
 
 1844 
 
 3,540,903 
 
 1888 
 
 6,362,142 
 
 
 
 1845 
 
 3,707,561 
 
 1889 
 
 6,541,918 
 
 
 
 1846 
 
 3,575,775 
 
 1890 
 
 7,072,811 
 
 
 
 1847 
 
 3,513,687 
 
 1891 
 
 6,694,457 
 
 
 
 1848 
 
 2,845,691 
 
 1892 
 
 6,621,674 
 
 
 
 1849 
 
 3,060,516 
 
 1893 
 
 6,599,622 
 
 
 
 1850 
 
 3,082,729 
 
 1894 
 
 6,820,164 
 
 
 
 1851 
 
 3,323,893 
 
 1895 
 
 6,587,049 
 
 
 
 1852 
 
 4,790,468 
 
 1896 
 
 6,332,686 
 
 
 
 1853 
 
 3,935,149 
 
 1897 
 
 6,772,879 
 
 
 
 1854 
 
 3,722,766 
 
 1898 
 
 6,700,921 
 
 
 
 1855 
 
 3,778,180 
 
 1899 
 
 6,820,273 
 
 
 
 1856 
 
 3,905,067 
 
 1900 
 
 6,848,700 
 
 
 
 1857 
 
 4,191,716 
 
 1901 
 
 6,728,666 
 
 
 
 1858 
 
 6,684,567 
 
 1902 
 
 6,598,044 
 
 
 
 1859 
 
 5,260,595 
 
 1903* 
 
 6,375,241 
 
 
 
 1860 
 
 4,547,399 
 
 1904 
 
 6,907,694 
 
 
 
 1861 
 
 4,700,227 
 
 1905 
 
 6,626,734 
 
 
 
 1862 
 
 4,721,194 
 
 1906 
 
 6,522,922 
 
 
 
 1863 
 
 4,788,496 
 
 1907 
 
 6,695,553 
 
 
 
 1864 
 
 5,090,041 
 
 1908 
 
 6,472,437 
 
 
 
 1865 
 
 5,139,895 
 
 1909 
 
 6,786,088 
 
 
 
 (Totals 
 
 from 1903 to 1913 
 
 are for disbursements and 
 
 differ from 
 
 receipts of the year because of 
 
 reserve fund from previous 
 
 year.) 
 
 187 
 
188 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 MONEY RECEIVED BY THE AMERICAN DIOCESES 
 
 FROM 
 THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH 
 
 Alaska 
 
 Albany 
 
 Alexandria 
 
 Alton 
 
 Baker City 
 
 Baltimore 
 
 Boise 
 
 Boston 
 
 Brooklyn 
 
 Buffalo 
 
 Burlington 
 
 Charleston 
 
 Cheyenne 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 Cleveland 
 
 Columbus 
 
 Concordia 
 
 Corpus Christi 
 
 Covington 
 
 Crookston 
 
 Dallas 
 
 Denver 
 
 Detroit 
 
 Dubuque 
 
 Duluth 
 
 El Paso 
 
 Erie 
 
 Fargo 
 
 Fort Wayne 
 
 Galveston 
 
 Great Falls 
 
 Green Bay 
 
 Hartford 
 
 Helena 
 
 Indianapolis 
 
 Kansas City 
 
 La Crosse 
 
 Lead 
 
 Leavenworth 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 Little Rock 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 Louisville 
 
 Marquette 
 
 Milwaukee 
 
 Mobile 
 
 Nashville 
 
 Natchez 
 
 $88,726 From 1893 to 
 
 1912 
 
 43,844 < 
 
 1847 " 
 
 1866 
 
 175,069 < 
 
 1854 <f 
 
 1918 
 
 41,600 < 
 
 1857 " 
 
 1869 
 
 24,722 ' 
 
 1905'" 
 
 1922 
 
 56,757 
 
 1823 ' 
 
 1865 
 
 38,454 < 
 
 1870 " 
 
 1922 
 
 52,839 < 
 
 1829 " 
 
 1864 
 
 4,800 < 
 
 1856 " 
 
 1867 
 
 110,214 
 
 1847 " 
 
 1866 
 
 40,200 < 
 
 1853 " 
 
 1884 
 
 220,360 < 
 
 1828 " 
 
 1922 
 
 9,514 < 
 
 1897 " 
 
 1918 
 
 99,655 < 
 
 1844 " 
 
 1866 
 
 118,569 < 
 
 1823 " 
 
 1869 
 
 62,644 * 
 
 1847 " 
 
 1876 
 
 3,200 < 
 
 1868 " 
 
 1869 
 
 37,160 
 
 1887 " 
 
 1901 
 
 75,866 
 
 1874 '' 
 
 1922 
 
 37,000 ' 
 
 1854 " 
 
 1887 
 
 16,604 ' 
 
 1911 " 
 
 1922 
 
 4,050 ' 
 
 1891 " 
 
 1902 
 
 47,477 ' 
 
 1868 " 
 
 1918 
 
 113,453 < 
 
 1828 " 
 
 1887 
 
 119,398 ' 
 
 1838 " 
 
 1866 
 
 16,814 < 
 
 1890 " 
 
 1918 
 
 200 ' 
 
 1912 " 
 
 1920 
 
 30,600 
 
 1854 " 
 
 1869 
 
 15,949 ' 
 
 1890 " 
 
 1920 
 
 34,400 < 
 
 1858 ' 
 
 1869 
 
 249,370 < 1846 " 
 
 1901 
 
 15,793 " 1909 " 
 
 1922 
 
 25,650 " 1868 " 
 
 1888 
 
 51,028 " 1845 " 
 
 1866 
 
 19,678 ' 
 
 1882 " 
 
 1918 
 
 237,978 
 
 1834 " 
 
 1869 
 
 2,000 ' 
 
 1880 " 
 
 1881 
 
 15,720 < 
 
 1868 ^ 
 
 1887 
 
 26,396 ' 
 
 1904 f ' 
 
 1922 
 
 118,490 ' 
 
 1856 " 
 
 1883 
 
 1,005 ' 
 
 1889 " 
 
 1918 
 
 105,120 ' 
 
 1844 " 
 
 1892 
 
 99,800 ' 
 
 1849 " 
 
 1877 
 
 159,816 
 
 1822 ' 
 
 1867 
 
 61,380 < 
 
 1854 " 
 
 1885 
 
 56,432 ' 
 
 1844 " 
 
 1866 
 
 109,918 ' 
 
 1828 " 
 
 1918 
 
 100,767 < 
 
 1839 " 
 
 1887 
 
 197,701 ( 1839 " 
 
 1922 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 189 
 
 Newark 
 
 23,600 
 
 From 1854 to 
 
 1866 
 
 New Orleans 
 
 124,160 
 
 " 1822 " 
 
 1872 
 
 New York 
 
 112,160 
 
 " 1827 " 
 
 1866 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 70,559 
 
 " 1868 " 
 
 1918 
 
 Oklahoma 
 
 100,073 
 
 " 1876 " 
 
 1918 
 
 Omaha 
 
 60,360 
 
 11 1859 " 
 
 1883 
 
 Oregon City 
 
 171,294 
 
 " 1844 " 
 
 1891 
 
 Peoria 
 
 1,000 
 
 11 1877 
 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 51,161 
 
 " 1829 " 
 
 1859 
 
 Pittsburgh 
 
 85,600 
 
 " 1843 " 
 
 1868 
 
 Portland 
 
 18,190 
 
 " 1856 " 
 
 1867 
 
 Richmond 
 
 128,125 
 
 " 1841 " 
 
 1922 
 
 Rochester 
 
 4,000 
 
 11 1868 " 
 
 1869 
 
 Sacramento 
 
 36,200 
 
 " 1860 " 
 
 1876 
 
 St. Augustine 
 
 118,347 
 
 " 1836 " 
 
 1908 
 
 St. Cloud 
 
 13,140 
 
 " 1889 " 
 
 1890 
 
 St. Joseph 
 
 6,600 
 
 " 1868 " 
 
 1872 
 
 St. Louis 
 
 196,155 
 
 " 1827 " 
 
 1872 
 
 St. Paul 
 
 95,785 
 
 " 1850 " 
 
 1872 
 
 Salt Lake 
 
 16,400 
 
 li 1872 " 
 
 1887 
 
 San Antonio 
 
 34,209 
 
 " 1874 " 
 
 1918 
 
 San Francisco 
 
 45,600 
 
 11 1853 " 
 
 1884 
 
 Santa Fe 
 
 206,114 
 
 " 1851 " 
 
 1918 
 
 Savannah 
 
 146,465 
 
 " 1850 " 
 
 1922 
 
 Seattle 
 
 120,842 
 
 tt 1847 " 
 
 1892 
 
 Sioux Falls 
 
 13,900 
 
 " 1889 " 
 
 1894 
 
 Tucson 
 
 136,148 
 
 11 1869 " 
 
 1922 
 
 Wheeling 
 
 58,205 
 
 " 1850 " 
 
 1879 
 
 Wichita 
 
 7,640 
 
 ' 1887 ' 
 
 1895 
 
 Wilmington 
 
 16,920 
 
 *' 1868 ' 
 
 1892 
 
 Porto Rico 
 
 61,702 
 
 " 1906 ' 
 
 1921 
 
 Philippine Islands 
 
 331,024 
 
 " 1905 
 
 1921 
 
 Hawaii 
 
 162,058 
 
 ' 1899 ' 
 
 1921 
 
 Guam 
 
 2,400 
 
 .... 
 
 1921 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 849,702 
 
 
 
 Total $7,020,974 " 1822 " 1922 
 
 *Of this amount $516,592 was given to some Religious Orders in 
 addition to what they may have received from the Ordinary in whose 
 diocese they were established. 
 
 The following sums were given to Religious Societies for use in 
 the United States: 
 
 Jesuits $263,089 
 
 Lazarists 158,800 
 
 Oblates 45,657 
 
 Congregation of the Holy 
 
 Cross 18,657 
 
 Redemptorists 11,088 
 
 Fathers of Mercy 7,980 
 
 Benedictines 6,000 
 
 Dominicans 5,320 
 
 Total 
 
 $516,592 
 
190 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 II. PERSONNEL OF THE MISSIONS ASSISTED BY THE 
 PEOPAGATION OF THE FAITH IN 1921 
 
 Augustinians 
 
 1256 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Vic.: Cookstown, Hunan, N. 
 
 (O. S. A.) 
 
 
 
 Pref . : Amazon. 
 
 Augustinians of the 
 
 1851 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Dio.: Athens. 
 
 Assumption (A. A.) 
 
 
 
 Vic. : Constantinople. 
 
 Augustinian Recollets 
 
 1438 
 
 Spain. 
 
 Vic.: Casanare. 
 
 (A. E.) 
 
 
 
 Pref.: Palawan. 
 
 Benedictines (O. S. B.) 
 
 529 
 
 Mt. Cassin. 
 
 Vic. : Katanga, Kimberley 
 
 
 
 
 (Australia), Wonsan. 
 
 
 
 
 Pref.: Lindi, Transvaal, No. 
 
 
 
 
 Zululand. 
 
 Canons of the Holy 
 
 1211 
 
 Holland. 
 
 Mis.: Uelle, N. 
 
 Cross (Croisiers) 
 
 
 
 
 (0. S. C.) 
 
 
 
 
 Carmelites (Discalced) 
 
 1528 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Dio.: Quilon, Verapoly. 
 
 (0. C. D.) 
 
 
 
 Pref.: Bagdad. 
 
 Children of the Im- 
 
 1849 
 
 Spain. 
 
 Vic.: Fernando Poo. 
 
 maculate Heart of 
 
 
 
 Pref. : Choco. 
 
 Mary (C. I. H. M.) 
 
 
 
 
 Chinese Mission Society 
 
 1916 
 
 Omaha, 
 
 Mis.: Hupeh, E. 
 
 
 
 Nebr. 
 
 
 Cistercians (Trappists) 
 
 1098 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Dio. : Hakodate. 
 
 (0. C. R.) 
 
 
 
 Mis.: Chili, N. 
 
 Congregation of the 
 
 1821 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Dio.: Dacca. 
 
 Holy Cross (C. S. C.) 
 
 
 
 
 Congregation of the 
 
 1848 
 
 Paris. 
 
 Dio.: Port Louis. 
 
 Holy Ghost 
 
 
 
 Vic.: Bagamoyo; Diego Sua- 
 
 (C. S. Sp.) 
 
 
 
 rez; Gaboon; Guinea (Fr.) ; 
 
 
 
 
 Kilima Ndjaro; Loango; 
 
 
 
 
 Senegambia ; Sierra Leone ; 
 
 
 
 
 Ubanghi ; Ubanghi-chari ; 
 
 
 
 
 Zanzibar No. 
 
 
 
 
 Pref.: Cameroon; Congo, Lower; 
 
 
 
 
 Cubango ; Katanga, No. ; 
 
 
 
 
 Mayotta (Nossi Be) ; Niger, 
 
 
 
 
 Lower; St. Peter and Mi- 
 
 
 
 
 quelon ; Teff 6. 
 
 Congregation of Jesus 
 
 1643 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Vic.: Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 and Mary (Eudists) 
 
 
 
 
 (C. J. M.) 
 
 
 
 
 Congregation of the 
 Missions (Lazarists) 
 
 1632 
 
 Paris. 
 
 Dio. : Ispahan. 
 Vic. : Abyssinia ; Chekiang, 
 
 (C. M.) 
 
 
 
 East; Chekiang, West; Chili, 
 
 
 
 
 Central; Chili, East; Chili, 
 
 
 
 
 Maritime ; Chili, North ; Chili, 
 
 
 
 
 Southwest ; Ft. Dauphin ; 
 
 
 
 
 Kanchow; Ki-han-fou; Kiou- 
 
 
 
 
 kiang; San Pedro de Sulam; 
 
 
 
 
 You-kiang. 
 
 
 
 
 Pref. : Arauca. 
 
 Congregation of the 
 Passion (Passionists) 
 
 1737 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Dio. : Nicopolis. 
 Mis.: Hunan, N. 
 
 (C. P.) 
 
 
 
 : j 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 191 
 
 Congregation of the | 1817 (Braine, 
 
 Vic. : Hawaii ; Marquesas ; 
 
 Sacred Hearts of| Belgium. 
 
 Tahiti. 
 
 Jesus and Mary (Pic- 
 
 
 Pref.: New Guinea, West. 
 
 pusians) (S. H. Pic.) 
 
 
 
 Company of Mary 
 
 1705 |St. Laurent 
 
 Vic.: Llanos de San Martin; 
 
 (M. C.) 
 
 sur Sevres, 
 
 Shire. 
 
 
 France. 
 
 
 Dominicans (O. P.) 
 
 1215 | Borne. 
 
 Vic.: Amoy; Canelos e Macas; 
 
 
 
 Curacao ; Fokien ; Tonkin, 
 
 
 
 
 Central; Tonkin, East; Ton- 
 
 
 
 
 kin, North; UellS, East; Uru- 
 
 
 
 
 bamba. 
 
 
 
 
 Pref. : Formosa ; Langson ; 
 
 
 
 
 Shikoku. 
 
 Foreign Missions 
 
 1910 
 
 Maryknoll, 
 
 Mis.: Canton. 
 
 i( American) (A.F.M.) 
 
 
 New York, 
 
 
 Foreign Missions (Bel- 
 
 1865 
 
 Scheut-lez- 
 
 Vic.: Free State (Leopold- 
 
 gian) (B. F. M.) 
 
 
 Bruxelles, 
 
 ville) ; Kansu, North; Kassai; 
 
 
 
 Belgium. 
 
 Mongolia, Central ; Mongolia, 
 
 
 
 
 East; Mongolia, South; New 
 
 
 
 
 Antwerp. 
 
 
 
 
 Pref.: Hi; Kansu, South. 
 
 Foreign Missions (En- 
 
 1866 
 
 Mill Hill, 
 
 Dio. : Madras. 
 
 gland) (E. F. M.) 
 
 
 England. 
 
 Vic. : Upper Nile. 
 
 
 
 
 Pref.: Borneo, North; Kafiri- 
 
 
 
 
 stan. 
 
 Foreign Missions (Mi- 
 
 1850 
 
 Milan, 
 
 Dio.: Hyderabad; Krishnagar. 
 
 lan) (M. F. M.) 
 
 
 Italy. 
 
 Vic.: Burma, East; Honan, 
 
 
 
 
 East; Honan, North; Honan, 
 
 
 
 
 South ; Hongkong. 
 
 Foreign Missions of 
 
 1663 
 
 Paris. 
 
 Dio. : Coimbatore ; Hakodate ; 
 
 Paris (P. F. M.) 
 
 
 
 Kumbakonam; Malacca; My- 
 
 
 
 
 sore ; Nagasaki ; Osaka ; 
 
 
 
 
 Pondicherry; Tokyo. 
 
 
 
 
 Vic.: Burma, North; Burma, 
 
 
 
 
 South; Cambodia; Canton; 
 
 
 
 
 Cochin China, East; Cochin 
 
 
 
 
 China, North; Cochin China, 
 
 
 
 
 West; Hainan; Kien-tchang; 
 
 
 
 
 Kui-chow ; Kwangsi ; Laos ; 
 
 
 
 
 Manchuria, North ; Manchu- 
 
 
 
 
 ria, South; eeoul; Siam; 
 
 
 
 
 Si-chuan, East ; Si-chuan, 
 
 
 
 
 South; Si-chuan, West; Swa- 
 
 
 
 
 tow; Taikou; Thibet; Ton- 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 kin, Maritime ; Tonkin, 
 
 v-.-- , . . . 
 
 
 
 South; Tonkin, Upper; Ton- 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 kin, West; Yun-nan. 
 
 Foreign Missions of 
 
 
 Parma, 
 
 Vic.: Honan, West. 
 
 Parma (F. M. P.) 
 
 
 Italy. 
 
 
 Foreign Missions of 
 
 1874 
 
 Borne. 
 
 Vic.: Shensi, South. 
 
 (Borne (B. F. M.) 
 
 
 
 Mis.: Lower California. 
 
 Foreign Missions of 
 
 1900 
 
 Turin, 
 
 Vic.: Kenia. 
 
 Turin (Consolata) 
 
 
 Italy. 
 
 Pref.: Kaffa. 
 
 (T. F. M.) 
 
 
 
 
192 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Franciscan Minors 
 (O. F. M.) 
 
 Franciscan Capuchins 
 (O. M. Cap.) 
 
 Missionaries of Africa 
 (White Fathers) 
 
 Missionaries of La 
 Salette (M. S.) 
 
 Missionaries of St. 
 
 Francis de Sales 
 (Annecy) 
 (M. S. F. S.) 
 
 Missionaries of the 
 
 Sacred Heart (Is- 
 soudun) (M. S. H.) 
 
 Oblates of Mary Im- 
 maculate (O. M. I.) 
 
 1209 Rome. 
 
 1858 
 
 1868 
 
 1852 
 1833 
 
 1854 
 
 1826 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Oblates of St. Francis 1871 
 
 de Sales (Troyes) | 
 
 (O. S. F. S.) 
 Premonstratensians j 1119 
 
 (Norbertins) 
 
 (O. Praem) 
 
 Algiers, 
 Africa. 
 
 Susa, Italy. 
 
 | Annecy, 
 France. 
 
 Rome. 
 Rome. 
 
 Rome. 
 Rome. 
 
 Vic.: Alep; Beni; Chaco; 
 Egypt; Hunan, South; Hu- 
 peh, East ; Hupeh, Northwest ; 
 Hupeh, South; Lybia; Mo- 
 rocco ; Shansi, North ; Shansi, 
 South ; Shantung, East ; 
 Shantung, North ; Shensi, 
 Central; Shensi, North; 
 Zamora. 
 
 Pref . : Rhodes ; Sapporo ; 
 Ucayali. 
 
 Mis. : Assiout ; Constantinople ; 
 Putumayo. 
 
 Dio. : Agra, Ajmere; Allaha- 
 bad; Candia; Lahore; Port 
 Victoria ; Simla. 
 
 Vic.: Arabia; Bluefields; Bor- 
 neo, South; Caroline and 
 Marianne Islands ; Dar-es- 
 Salaam ; Eritrea ; Gallas ; 
 Goa jira ; Guam ; Sofia. 
 
 Pref.: Araucania; Belgian Ou- 
 banghi ; Caqueta ; Djibouti ; 
 Misox and Calanca; Rhetia; 
 Sumatra; Upper Solimoes. 
 
 Mis.: Mardin; Syria; Trebi- 
 zonde. 
 
 Vic.: Bamoko; Bangueolo; 
 Congo, Upper; Kivu; Ny- 
 assa; Ougadougou; Tan- 
 ganyika ; Uganda ; Unyan- 
 yembe; Victoria Nyanza! 
 
 Pref.: Ghardaia. 
 
 Vic.: Antsirabe. 
 
 Dio. : Nagpur ; Vizagapatam. 
 
 Dio. : Port Victoria. 
 
 Vic.: Gilbert and Ellis Is; 
 Marshall Is; New Britain; 
 New Guinea (British) ; New 
 Guinea (Dutch). 
 
 Dio. : Colombo ; Jaffna. 
 
 Vic. : Athabaska ; Basutoland ; 
 Keewatin; Kimberley (Afri- 
 ca); Mackenzie; Natal; 
 Transvaal; Yukon. 
 
 Pref., Cimbebasia Lower. 
 
 Vic. : Orange River. 
 
 Pref.: Grand Namaqualand. 
 
 Pref.: Uelle West. 
 
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 193 
 
 Priests of the Sacred 
 Heart (St. Quentin) 
 (S. H. Q.) 
 Redemptorists 
 (C. SS. E.) 
 
 1877 
 1732 
 
 Rome. 
 Rome. 
 
 Religious Missionaries 
 of Marianhill 
 (R. M. M.) 
 Secular Priests 
 
 1913 
 
 S. Africa. 
 
 Society of the African 
 Missions of Lyons 
 (L. Af. M.) 
 
 1856 
 
 Lyons. 
 
 Society of the Divine 
 Saviour (S. D. S.) 
 Society of the Divine 
 Word (S. V. D.) 
 
 1881 
 1875 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Steyl, 
 Holland. 
 
 Society of Jesus 
 (Jesuits) (S. J.) 
 
 1540 
 
 Rome. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Society of Mary (Ma- 
 rists) (S. M.) 
 
 1836 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Society of St. Francis 
 de Sales (Salesians) 
 (S. S. F. S.) 
 
 1855 
 
 Turin, 
 Italy. 
 
 Sons of the Sacred 
 Heart of Jesus of 
 Verona (V. A. M.) 
 Sylvestrin Benedictines 
 (S. 0. S. B.) 
 Syro Malabar Rite .... 
 
 1867 
 1231 
 
 Verona, 
 Italy. 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Trinitarians 
 (O. SS. T.) 
 
 1198 
 
 Rome. 
 
 Vic.: .Stanley Falls. 
 
 Pref.: Adamaua; Celebes Is. 
 
 Dio. : Perth; Roseau. 
 Vic. : Dutch Guiana. 
 Pref.: Matadi. 
 Mis: Mariannhill (Natal). 
 
 Vic.: Antofagasta; Cape, East; 
 Cape, West; Denmark; Nor- 
 way ; Sweden ; Tarapaca. 
 
 Pref.: Cape, Central; French 
 Guiana. 
 
 Vic. : Benin ; Dahomey ; Delta 
 of Nile; Gold Coast; Ivory 
 Coast; Niger, West; Togo. 
 
 Pref.: Koroko; Liberia; Niger, 
 East. 
 
 Pref.: Assam. 
 
 Vic. : Shantung, South. 
 
 Pref. : New Guinea, East ; 
 Nygata ; Sunda Islands. 
 
 Dio. : Bombay ; Calcutta ; 
 Galle; Mangalore; Patna; 
 Poona ; Trichinopoly ; Trin- 
 comali. 
 
 Vic.: Alaska; Batavia; British 
 Guiana ; British Honduras ; 
 I Chili, Southeast; Fianarant- 
 soa ; Jamaica ; Nankin 
 (Kiangnan) ; Napo; Tanana- 
 rive. 
 
 Pref.: Kwango; Zambezi. 
 
 Dio : Wellington 
 
 Vic.: Central Oceanica; Fiji; 
 Navigators Islands (Samoa) ; 
 New Caledonia; New He- 
 brides ; Solomon Islands, 
 South. 
 
 Pref.: Solomon Islands, North. 
 
 Vic.: Magellan; Mendez et 
 Gualaquiza ; Patagonia, 
 North ; Shiu-chow. 
 
 Pref.: Rio Negro. 
 
 Vic.: Bhar-el-Gazal ; Khartoum. 
 
 Dio.: Kandy. 
 
 Vic.: Changanacherry ; Ernaku- 
 
 lam; Kottayam; Trichur. 
 Pref. : Benadir. 
 
194 The Society for the Propagation of the Faith 
 
 Exercise 1918 
 
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VITA 
 
 Edward J. Hickey was born at Detroit, Mich., December 
 13, 1893. He attended the Cathedral School of that city,' and 
 then entered the University of Detroit, where he graduated in 
 1914 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then entered the 
 Graduate School of Business Administration of Harvard Uni- 
 versity, and completed this course with the degree Master in 
 Business Administration, in 1916. Later, he submitted a thesis 
 to the University of Detroit, for which he received the degree 
 A. M. His theological course was made at St. Paul Seminary, 
 St. Paul, Minn., and he was ordained to the priesthood in De- 
 troit by Right Rev. Michael James Gallagher, D. D., on June 
 15, 1919. He then entered the School of Philosophy of the 
 Catliolic University of America, as a graduate student. In 
 1920, he received the degrees S. T. B. and J. C. B. from the 
 University. In company with his major professor Dr. 
 Guilday, he went to Europe, and during the academic year 
 1920-1921, he attended the Institut Catholique de Paris, 
 where he followed a course in the French Revolution under 
 Professor Gautherot ; the Sorbonne, where he studied the His- 
 tory of Modern Europe, and the History of Contemporary 
 Europe, under Prof. Seignobos; and the Ecole des Chartes, 
 where he studied Latin Paleography under Prof. Berger. Dur- 
 ing the Scholastic year 1921-1922 he was a member of the 
 American Church History Seminar, under Rev. Dr. Peter 
 Guilday. He followed the course in American Political His- 
 tory under Professor Charles H. McCarthy, Ph. D. To all his 
 professors, the writer expresses his sincere gratitude and 
 appreciation. 
 
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