1703 - 2003
Three Hundred Years of Ministry
Pat Fitzpatrick, CSSp
Provincial Superior -
TransCanada Province
Anniversaries
are linked to precious metals - silver, gold, platinum, diamond. But
even they take us no farther than three-quarters of a century beyond
a special event. What precious metal might signify a three centuries
old anniversary?
An
anniversary invites us to look back, to look around and to look
ahead. The past, the present and the future coalesce. Photos are
displayed, videos are played, speeches are made, prayers are said,
toasts are offered. Congratulations are extended. A good time is had
by all. The memory lingers on.
Paris, 1703 - a twenty four year old lawyer, supported all
life long by his rich Breton family, went on a retreat, became a
seminarian, and for the first time really became aware of life in the
French capital for those not as fortunate as himself. Not everyone
had his comfortable upbringing, not everyone could afford a
university education - in fact, not everyone had guaranteed food each
day or guaranteed shelter each night.
Among his fellow seminarians were some who, for lack of money, could
barely make it through their courses. Outside the seminary walls were
poor street kids who could barely make it through the night. For want
of tuition the former might have to quit their dream of becoming
priests; for want of work the latter might never know the inside of a
home except for its sooty, grimy chimneys. What to do? He opened a
hostel for the seminarians and gave away his own meals to ease the
hunger of the chimney sweepers.
Claude Poullart des
Places had unknowingly founded the future Holy Ghost
Congregation. Little did he guess that from the successors of these
poor seminarians would come the early French missionaries to Atlantic
Canada and Quebec. Claude was twenty four years old when he opened
his hostel. In 1707 he was ordained a priest. Two years later he got
pleurisy and died. The talented son of wealthy parents was buried in
an unmarked pauper's grave in Paris.
Paris, 1839 - a lapsed Jew, son of the rabbi of Saverne in
Alsace, convert to Catholicism, student for the priesthood, joined
two Creole seminarians and founded a religious community whose
members would go to Haiti and Reunion to work for black people,
especially black slaves. He was in poor health, suffered severe
headaches and migraine attacks. "There is pressure in my head as
though my forehead and temples were clamped in an iron band," he
wrote. His condition was eventually diagnosed as epilepsy - a barrier
to ordination in those days.
Born Jacob Libermann,
he had taken Francis as his baptismal name. With few supports, two
young seminarians and a former Jew with serious health problems set
out to enthuse their fellow seminarians for the African Missions and
after several setbacks, the death of their initial missionaries and
no guarantee of future stability, he amalgamated his new group with
the Poullart des Places group, now on its last legs after the French
Revolution. The merger of the new group and the 145-year-old
Congregation was of benefit to both - new blood, new leadership, new enthusiasm.
2003 - the successors of des Places and Libermann will
celebrate three hundred years of existence. No longer only French now
- the family has scattered far and wide. Members can be found in a
dozen European countries, in Canada and the United States, in six
Caribbean islands, in Central and South America, in twenty four
African countries, in Australia and Papua New Guinea, the Indian
Ocean, Pakistan, Taiwan and the Philippines. Dying out after the
French Revolution, revived by Libermann's blood transfusion, they now
number over three thousand members, most of whom are African. What
first flowered in Europe, then blossomed in Africa has been
transplanted to Asia and Oceania where new century twenty one shoots
are beginning to bud.
The group that came together in Holy Spirit Seminary, Paris, became
known as the Holy Ghost Fathers in the English-speaking world. As
Holy Ghost gave way to Holy Spirit in the mid-twentieth century, the
Congregation has come to be known as the Spiritans. The Spirit, first
imagined as sweeping over the face of the dark abyss of creation,
continues to lead them beyond what currently exists into the unknown
future, daring them to be open to new ways.
Canadian beginnings
In 1732 the first Spiritan came to Canada from the Paris Seminary.
Perhaps the most famous Spiritan to come from France to Canada was Pierre
Maillard, the apostle of the Micmac people. He landed in
Louisbourg, Cape Breton in 1735. This remarkable man spent years
learning Micmac idioms and developing a pictorial script for the
people. He was author of a Micmac grammar and dictionary, as well as
a book of prayers, hymns and sermons. Arrested by the British,
deported to Boston and then back to France, he turned up four years
later in Bras d'Or, then led his Micmac people to New Brunswick to
join up with the Acadians and accept a peace offer from the British.
He died in 1762 in Halifax, was given an Anglican funeral and buried
in the Protestant cemetery - no other Catholic priest had been
allowed to remain in Nova Scotia.
How can you capture a Congregation's story, its current life and its
ever-changing interests? How can you portray past accomplishments,
present undertakings and future possibilities?
A Mass in Maasailand.
A
development project in Haiti.
A trip to
town in Trinidad.
A parish in Toronto.
A clinic in
Papua New Guinea.
A family
reunion in Nigeria.
The list can be endless. Celebrate with us as we give thanks to God
for the past and as we dream possibilities for the future.
Pat
Fitzpatrick, CSSp
The
Spiritans Prepare for 2003...
Welcome to the site of the TransCanada Province of the Spiritans. We are a Roman Catholic Religious Congregation of over three thousand members, founded in 1703. Our missions are spread worldwide. While we may be found involved in many diverse ministries, we have dedicated ourselves to working with the poor and in those situations where the Church has difficulty in finding ministers. We hope you enjoy your visit to our site and that while browsing you will keep us in your prayers. May God bless you.
