Today's Spiritans - Priests, Brothers and Lay
Associates owe their origin to a young French nobleman, Claude
Poullart des Places, who gave up the practice of law to study for the
priesthood. His apostolate began among the chimney sweeps of Paris,
and his small seminary, founded in 1703 and dedicated to the Holy
Ghost, marked the beginning of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost.
Before long, the Spiritans, as they came to be called, were actively
engaged in apostolic work throughout Europe, India, Africa, North and
South America.
Diminished by the French Revolution, the Congregation
was renewed in 1848 when Fr. Francis Libermann , the son of a Jewish
rabbi, joined his new Congregation of the Holy Heart of Mary to the
Holy Ghost Fathers, bringing with him a number of priests and
seminarians dedicated to the poor and underprivileged. It is the
writings and the example of Fr. Francis Libermann that set the tone
for today's Spiritans as they follow an apostolate dedicated to, and
guided by, the Holy Spirit.
Fr. Claude Poullart des Places
Claude Poullart des Places, our first founder grew up
as the eldest son of a wealthy lawyer in Rennes, Brittany. Having
finished high school at fifteen, he then graduated top of his class
at college. He would surely fulfill his father's ambition and become
a distinguished lawyer.
Claude was ambitious -- but for something else. During
a retreat he knew he wanted to become a priest and use his public
speaking skills to convert thousands to Christ. Although this
decision deeply upset his father, he knew he could not keep his son
at home. Claude left for Paris to study theology at the Jesuit seminary.
Child labour was a common sight in Paris in pre-French
Revolution days. Illiterate, homeless chimney sweeps from rural
France hired themselves out for a few cents a day. Claude became
aware of how exploited they were. His heart went out to them and he
fed, housed and gave them some basic religious education.
Then he saw how many of the other seminarians were
living a hand-to-mouth existence. He gave them his meals and lived on
the leftovers of the Jesuits for his own food. But his social
conscience told him handouts were not enough, so on Pentecost Sunday,
1703, he opened a hostel for four or five of these poor students.
Unknown to Claude, the future Holy Ghost Congregation had been born.
The priests he trained began to work among the poor in
the French countryside and in parishes no other priest would choose,
living like those they ministered to. Claude was 24 years old when he
opened the Holy Spirit community house. In 1707 he became a priest.
Two years later he got pleurisy and died. The talented firstborn son
of wealthy parents was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in Paris.
Spiritans celebrate the life and death of des Places every October
2nd.
Click
here for the spirituality of Fr. des Places
Fr. Francis Libermann
Francis Libermann, the son of a Jewish rabbi, was born
in Saverne in Alsace (France) in 1802. He was converted and was
baptized a Catholic in 1826. He then entered the seminary of
Saint-Sulpice in Paris. When he suffered his first epileptic seizure
a year later, it was the beginning of twelve years of obscurity. In
retrospect, these years would better be described as "the making
of an apostle" for they were prologue to a creative outburst
that took everyone by surprise. Founder of a missionary congregation,
Superior General, renowned spiritual director, confidant of
government officials Libermann had discovered his missionary vocation
to the most abandoned. He was to revitalize the African missions.
He died in 1852 but he is still a source of strength
and encouragement for Spiritans and for many others. For Libermann,
the great enemy in the Christian life is discouragement. When he
suffered his first serious epileptic seizure, he refused to be
downcast. His hopes of ordination to the priesthood were dashed.
Because of his illness no planning for the future was possible,
everything was tentative. Constantly vulnerable, he accepted his
nervous fragility and came to terms with uncertainty. In
accomplishing this there were some dark moments and once he was
tempted to suicide as he crossed a bridge in Paris. He tells us that
he overcame the temptation by turning his attention to Christ, the
living witness to the Father's love. Francis' conviction of Christ's
living and compassionate presence gave birth to a deep inner peace,
that remained unshakable throughout his troubled life. It was not
some sort of acquired calm but God's gift: "the peace of God
that surpasses all understanding".
When we turn to Libermann from the midst of the
tensions and pressures of the modern world, we should first of all
learn from his painful struggle for self-acceptance. Out of suffering
came peace. Our suffering may be a physical illness or a nervous
disorder. It may be the painful effort to accept the consequences of
some undeserved misfortune. We turn to Libermann because he has
travelled this road and for him it became the road to peace. Only by
the grateful acceptance of ourselves and of our present situation can
we follow in his footsteps. As we fight against discouragement and
feelings of revolt, Christ holds out his hand to us. And when we take
his hand in ours, he gives us his peace, peace that no one can take
from us.
Famous Spiritans
Fr. Jacques Laval
The Apostle of Mauritius
When he died in Mauritius in 1864, there were 40,000
people at his funeral. In the crowds who continually throng to pray
at his tomb, Catholics brush shoulders with Moslems, Hindus and
Buddhists. In 1977, the government of Mauritius made 9th September,
the anniversary of his death, a national holiday. April 24th, 1979 is
the date of the ceremony of his beatification in Rome. Jacques Laval
is the first Holy Ghost Father to be so honoured.
Jacques was born in Normandy (France) in 1803. His
father was a prosperous farmer. His mother died when he was 7, but
not before she had given him striking example of generosity to the
poor. In his later missionary work in Mauritius, Jacques was guided
by the formula: "Succeed in having good parents and you will
have good children." From his own parents, he inherited a
vigorous Christianity that was direct and daring. As a boy, he said
he would like to be a priest or a doctor. In Paris in 1830, he
qualified as a doctor.
When he returned to Normandy to set up medical
practise, there was a noticeable change in his behaviour. Handsome,
successful, a skilled horseman, he was much in demand at fashionable
gatherings. He became immersed in the social scene and abandoned the
practise of his religion. A series of events culminating in a brush
with death when he fell from his horse led him to completely
re-examine his life. A few months later, he entered the seminary and
within four years he was ordained a priest. After two years as a
parish priest in Normandy, he handed over all his possessions to
Francis Libermann, leader of the missionary Society of the Holy Heart
of Mary (which fused with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost in 1848)
and left for Mauritius.
In Mauritius, the slaves had recently been liberated.
Among them Jacques was to spend the last 23 years of his life without
ever seeing his native France again. He immediately set up a Mission
for the Blacks. His heart went out to these people, now free but
still treated as inferior. To get to know them, he learned their
language. To be like them, he fasted every day and slept on a bed
made from a wooden packing case. He refused to accept the common
opinion that regarded them with contempt. He tried to awaken them to
their personal worth by telling them of God's great love for each of
them. He made considerable demands on them. He tested them and then
he trusted them. He gave them responsibility for the animation and
instruction of small groups. What started in the city of Port Louis
spread across the island. A new enthusiasm for the Church was underway.
As a doctor, Jacques was known as a friend of the
poor. At the seminary, he became a man of prayer. Now he had become
one of the poor. In long hours of prayer, God came close to him. He
guided and strengthened him, He gave him the courage to continue to
trust the people and so become the "Apostle of Mauritius".
(Click here
for more on Fr. Laval).
Fr. Daniel Brottier
Daniel Brottier was born on 7 September 1876 in
Ferte-Saint-Cyr in the diocese of Blois, northern France. Quite early
on he showed an interest in religious things.
Not surprisingly, he entered the seminary and was
ordained a priest on 22 October 1899. However, not content with
working for the Catholics of France, he decided to give his life to
bringing the gospel to unbelievers. With this in mind he entered the
congregation of the Holy Ghost Fathers. He was sent as a missionary
to Senegal, W. Africa where he worked with great drive and commitment
in the parish of St. Louis. (For
an African perspective on Brottier, click here.)
He was recalled to France in 1911 and became involved
in raising funds for the cathedral of Dakar, capital city of Senegal.
The First World War intervened. He was enlisted in the French forces
and worked in the Red Cross with the function of chaplain. He took
part in this capacity in the battles of Lorraine, the Somme, Verdun
and Flanders. One of the fortunate few to survive the war, he founded
the National Union of Ex-Servicemen shortly after leaving the French forces.
In 1923, he was named by Cardinal Dubois as director
of an institute which provides accommodation and education for
orphans, known in French as L'Oeuvre d'Auteuil. Daniel Brottier had
an enormous faith in the intercession of St. Therese of the Child
Jesus, the Little Flower. Trusting in her intercession he succeeded
in expanding the work of Auteuil many times over in the course of 12 years.
He died exhausted by his efforts on 28 February 1936
leaving behind the reputation of a man of God and a great Christian.
Fr. Brottier's body was exhumed in 1962 with a view to his
beatification. It was found perfectly preserved, 26 years after his death.
Daniel Brottier was declared "Blessed" by
our Holy Father in Rome on November 25th, 1984.
February 28th
Spiritans
remember and celebrate the life of
Blessed
Daniel Brottier |
   |
Prayer
O GOD, you filled the heart
of your servant Daniel with a great spirit of charity. You drove him
forward into doing great things, to relieve the unhappiness of many
of your children. He worked, we know, for your glory as well as the
well being of those he served. Grant us now, we ask you the gift of
living that same life of generosity and caring charity to help our
fellow brothers and sisters in distress. And we pray you to honour
your servant, Daniel, here on earth by granting us the graces which
we so much need. (Here name your intention). Amen.
Bishop Joseph Shanahan
Of Southern Nigeria
He was given a second burial. The solemn but joyous ceremony was
performed for every qualified elder (men) of the Igbos, to ensure
that their names are entered into the canon of ancestors and
ancestresses. Bishop Shanahan (1871 - 1943) of Southern Nigeria was
the only non-Igbo to be afforded this honour. His bones were
disinterred and in 1955 were laid to rest in Onitsha cathedral in the
heart of the land of the Igbos. Who was this man so beloved and honoured?
Joseph Shanahan was born, the third of ten children of a poor farm
labourer in Co. Tipperary, Ireland. His uncle, Pat Walsh, who lived
with the Shanahans, left the home in Gortnalaura in 1875 to join the
congregation of the Holy Ghost, now called the Spiritans. It was an
old French religious order recently given a new lease of life by the
dynamic Francis Libermann, a convert from Judaism whose special
ambition was to bring the good news of Christ to the peoples of
Equatorial Africa.
In 1886 young Joe followed his uncle to France where he joined the
Spiritans and began his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained a
priest in 1900. In October 1902 his life's dream was fulfilled. He
was on a boat bound for Nigeria. Thirty five days later he arrived in
Onitsha, a name that would be forever linked with his own.
Shanahan joined a group of French Spiritans who had arrived in
Eastern Nigeria seventeen years previously.
From the very beginning Shanahan made a big impact. He was big,
strong, handsome. He was friendly, kind, energetic. The Igbo people
couldn't but admire and love him. And he served them with every ounce
of his being until he returned in 1932. He had served for thirty
years, twenty five as leader of the mission. Few Europeans could
survive more than a decade in Nigeria where conditions were often
harsh at that time.
His life is one of the great success stories of missionary history.
He was a truly charismatic figure, a man of exceptional courage and
vision. He travelled the country on foot, by bicycle, by canoe. He
walked boldly in areas where no white man had set toot before. He saw
the importance of education and built up a huge network of schools.
He recruited missionary priests, brothers, sisters and lay persons
for Southern Nigeria. He founded one religious order and was the
inspiration behind the setting up of five others.
As is the case for all saints, he suffered greatly. He was rejected
by some of his own fellow missionaries and forced into an unwanted
and early retirement. He was rejected by a missionary order of
sisters he founded in Ireland. He spent his final years in exile from
his beloved Igbos, years of frustration false accusations and loneliness.
Today he is seen as a luminary of the Church and of the Spiritans, a
wonderful model for all who are called to be missionaries. The Cause
of his Canonization was introduced in Rome in 1997. Another St.
Joseph may yet be added to the Church's litany of saints. |
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.