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 REDEMPTORISTS

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REDEMPTORISTS

Sainte. In 1S2S the Fathers exchanged their poorly- furnished home at Valsainte for the commodious Con- vent of Fribourg, which proved to be a fruitful nursery for the congregation until the Revolution of 1S48. Prior to 1848 six houses had been es- tabhshed in Austria: Frohnleiten in 1826; Mautern in 1827, the present house of studies; Innsbruck in 1828; Marburg and Eggenburg in 1833; and Leoben in 1834. During P;isserat's administration the congregation was introduced into Belgium by Father de Held, and in the course of the next ten years four houses were established: Tournai in 1831, St-Trond in 1833, Liege in 1833, and Brussels in 1849. A foundation was also opened at Wittem, Holland, where, in 1836, an old Capuchin monastery became the house of studies. During the same period another important mission was begun in North America. In 1828 Mgr Rcsc, Vicar-General of Cincinnati, visited Europe to solicit pecuniary aid and to obtain evangelical labourers. While at Vienna he applied to Passerat, from whom he secured three priests and three lay brothers; they arrived in New York 20 June, 1832. Two other Fathers followed in 1835. For seven years they laboured heroically among the whites and the Indians of northern Michigan and northern Ohio. Though thej' took charge of many stations in both states, they did not secure a permanent footing in any of these places, with the exception of Detroit. In 1839 the Fathers were called to Pittsburg to assume charge of the German congregation, which was then without a priest, and torn with party strife. In a short time they matle it a model congregation. Scattered throughout the surrounding country were many Catholic settlers, to whom they preached the Word of God and administered the sacraments. This species of mission inaugurated by them wherever they were estabUshed was the beginning of many a well-organized parish of to-day. From tliis time the care of German congregations, often in a deplor- able condition on account of factions, became a prominent element of the apostolate of the Redemp- torists in North America. Their first concern, however, was to establish, wherever feasible, parochial schools, which are in a flourishing condition to this day. Wlien the success of the Fathers at Pittsburg became known, applications were made to them for other foundations. They were called to Baltimore in 1840; to New York in 1842; to Philadelpliia in 1843; to Buffalo in 1845; to Detroit and New Or- leans in 1847; and to Cumberland in 1849. In 1837 a German congregation had been organized at Rochester by Father Prost, but the Fathers did not take permanent charge until 1841.

Meanwhile the congregation gained a permanent footing in new countries of Europe. In 1841 King Louis I of Bavaria invited the Fathers to the cele- brated shrine of Our Lady at Altotting. During this period four houses were founded in France: Landser in Alsace, in 1842; St-Nicolas-du-Port, in 1845; Teterchen in Lorraine and Contamine in Savoy, in 1847. The congregation suffered great losses through the revolution that swept over Europe in 1848. In 1S47 the Fathers were expelled from Switzerland and in 1848 from Austria, to which, however, they re- turned. Important developments were now taking place within the congregation itself. Although the Transalpine portion of the congregation was subject to the rector mnjor at Nocera in Italy, this superior left its government almost exclusively in the hands of a vicar-general resident at Vienna. .\s the congre- gation had spread far beyond its original boundaries, it was deemed necessarv to create the office of riro- vincial between the rerlnr mnjnr and the local supe- riors. Father Passerat, weighed down bv age and infirmities, resigned his office in 1S4S. After a series of deliberations conducted by the Holy See with the

superior general and the Fathers of the Transalpine' provinces. Father Rudolph Smetana was appointed vicar-general in 1850. Pius IX was now persuaded that it would be advantageous to have the superior general resident in Rome. Fearing the opposition of the King of Naples, he did all in his power to con- vince him of the benefits arising from this step, but in vain; thereupon he decided that the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, to the exclusion of the Neapolitan and the Sicilian houses, should be placed^ under a general superior, who was henceforth to reside at Rome. At the same time he made special regulations for the Rcdemptorists in the Kingdom of Naples. On the disappearance of the latter, the Nea- politan houses were united to the body of the con- gregation in 1869.

In pursuance of orders from the Holy See, Father Smetana convoked a general chapter. It was opened 26 April, 1855. The result of this chapter was the election of Father Nicholas Mauron, a native of Switzerland, as superior general. He was the first rector major to take up his abode at Rome. During Smetana's administration, and particularly during that of Mauron, the congregation made rapid prog- ress. The number of provinces in 1852 — not in- cluding Naples and Sicily — was four; in 1890 they had increased to tw-elve. The French-Swiss province, presided over by Father Desurmont for twenty-two years (1865-87), gained admission into Spain and South America. During the presidency of Garcia Moreno two houses were established in the Republic of Ecuador. A few years later the congregation gained a foothold in Peru, Chile, and Colombia. The original Belgian province, having grown very rapidly, was divided into the provinces of Belgium and Holland. The Lower German province found a new field of labour in the eastern part of South America. The province of Holland received charge of the mission at Surinam, South America, a settle- ment colonized partly by lepers.

The American province of the congregation, erected in 1850, has had a striking development. Its first provincial was the Rev. Bernard Hafkenscheid, a fellow-student of Leo XIII. One of his first cares was the establishment of a seminary and the selection of a suitable place for a novitiate. He chose Cum- berland, Maryland, for the future house of studies. From this nursery of study and piety many able and zealous missionaries went forth. In 1853 the novi- tiate, which had been located since 1849 at Baltimore, was removed to Annapolis, Maryland. Here the heirs of Charles Carroll of Carrollton had donated their entire estate to the Redemptorist Fathers. This house remained the novitiate until 1907, with the exception of the years 1862-66, when it was at Cumberland, and the students at Annapolis. In 1858-59 the present church and convent were built at Annapolis. In 1868 the students were transferred to the new house of studies at Ilchester, Maryland, which remained the Alma Mater of the Rcdempto- rists until 1907. In that year the faculty and the students, forty-eight in number, took up their abode at Esopus, on the Hudson, where a more spacious scholasticate had been erected. From the first house of St. .\lphonsus in Baltimore sprang other communi- ties: St. Michael's in 1S59, St. James's in 1867, and the Sacred Heart in 1878. In 1882, owing to dif- ficulties in the Bohemian parish, the Fathers, at the earnest request of Cardinal, then Archbishop, Gib- bons. a.ssumed charge of the Bohemians. In this diocese five other parishes, one in the city of W ash- ington. were origin.allv founded by the Rcdemptorists. In 1861 the congregation was' called to Chicago, Illinois, to take charge of St. Michael's parish. It was not long before a large church and a commodious school and convent were built. The great fire of 1871 destroyed all these structures, but, thanks to