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The Spiritan Association with Mary
On Pentecost Sunday, May 27th 1703, after Mass, in Our Lady's chapel of the church of St. Etienne des-Grès in Paris in front of the statue of Notre Dame de Bonne Délivrance, the so called Black Madonna of Paris, the 24-year-old, not yet ordained, Claude Francis Poullart Des Places (1679 - 1709) and his dozen friends consecrated themselves to bring the Good News to the poor by dedicating themselves to the Holy Spirit under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin. That day marked the humble beginnings of the Spiritans, the Congregation of the Holy Ghost.
Nearly one hundred and forty years later, on September 25th, 1841, the newly ordained convert to Catholicism, Francis Mary Paul Libermann, recent founder of the Society of the Holy Heart of Mary, celebrated his first Mass in Paris at the shrine of Notre Dame des Victoires. Fr. Libermann would, a few years later in 1848, merge his fledgling but vibrant society with the older, established Holy Ghost congregation, bringing about a renewal and a new vitality. Fr. Libermann is known as our "second founder."
Spiritans, The Congregation of the Holy Ghost
Laval House
121 Victoria Park Ave.
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA
M4E 3S2www.spiritans.com