British Province The British Province covers
Great Britain, but not
Northern Ireland, although a part of the United Kingdom. In 1939, the Spiritans bought a property in Nottinghamshire to act as a senior seminary, but the house was requisitioned In 2009, a report from
Caritas - Social Action highlighted the work of Revive as an example of good practice with asylum seekers and refugees in the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Lay Spiritan involvement in the management of Revive ceased in 2009. the Revive Web site listed a Spiritan priest as manager. One former Lay Spiritan, Ann-Marie Fell, was the recipient of a Catholic Women of the Year award in 2010 for her work as a prison chaplain. The UK Spiritan Provincial Philip Marsh CSSp spent much of his time travelling and meeting with the various communities and works of the Province, with a base in
Whitefield, Bury, where the small Provincial Residence Community is located.
Canada In 1732 the first Spiritan missionaries arrived in North America under Father Louis Bouic, to work among the
Miꞌkmaq and Acadians in
French Canada. Unfortunately, the settlers and natives of this region were caught in the political and military clash between the French and the British. One of the most famous Spiritans was
Pierre Maillard, named "the Apostle of the
Micmacs". After arduous learning over eight years, he wrote the first Micmac grammar. Father Maillard tried to attenuate the savagery of brutal warfare (instigated at times by the French and the British). Many more missionaries, such as
John Le Loutre, came but later had to flee with the Micmacs as the British conquered these areas. Maillard himself was captured in Louisbourg and deported to a Boston jail. In 1791, the British expelled the Spiritans, who were all from France, from Canada. But they continued their apostolate in the islands of
Saint Pierre and Miquelon. •
Neil McNeil High School •
Francis Libermann Catholic High School •
Regina Pacis Catholic Secondary School - closed 2002 •
Marian Academy - closed 2002
Germany See Heilig-Geist-Gymnasium Province of Ghana The Spiritan mission in
Ghana was started in 1971 by a group of Irish Spiritans who left Nigeria after the civil war. With more than forty years of Spiritan mission, the Province of Ghana continues to flourish with more than 100 members working both at home and abroad. Ghana is a democratic constitutional republic divided into ten administrative regions, with a multi-ethnic population of around 24 million as of 2010. Fourteen percent of the population is estimated to be Catholic. Located along the
Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean, in West Africa, Ghana has a land mass of 238,535 km2, with 2,093 kilometres of international land borders. In Ghana, Spiritans are ministering in sixteen parishes in nine of the eighteen dioceses. Many of the parishes are in a situation of primary evangelization in rural and deprived areas. The Province gives attention to basic and primary education in all of its twelve parishes. The Spiritan Technical Vocational School in Ada Nkwame, the Computer school in
Kumasi, the Libermann Senior High School in
Elubo, and the Spiritan University College in
Ejisu are all examples of the Spiritan commitment to evangelization through education. Thirty-five Spiritans from Ghana are on mission outside their home country in fifteen countries.
Irish Province The Irish Province covers the
island of Ireland (the
Republic of Ireland and
Northern Ireland). The first Spiritan house was opened in 1859 by Jules Leman. The Spiritans run five schools in Ireland: •
Blackrock College was founded by the Holy Ghost Fathers in 1860. •
Rockwell College was founded in 1864 and is located near
Cashel, County Tipperary. •
St. Michael's College, Dublin, was bought by Blackrock College in 1944 as a second feeder school with Willow Park. In December 1970, St Michael's officially became independent from Blackrock College. •
St Mary's College, Rathmines, Dublin, was founded in 1892. •
Templeogue College was founded in 1966 and is located in
Templeogue, Dublin. Novitiates, Seminaries and Colleges • Kilshane House, County Tipperary, operated as a junior novitiate from 1933 to 1983. •
Holy Ghost Missionary College, Kimmage Manor, Dublin, • Holy Ghost Missionary College, bought by the spiritans in 1911, as a seminary, students studying theology and philosophy, and also taking degrees in UCD. From 1924 until 1933 the Holy Ghost Fathers studied theology at Blackrock Castle, before returning to Kimmage Manor. In 1917 the House of Philosophy moved to St. Mary's, then in 1926 it moved to Blackrock, before moving back to Kimmage in 1938. •
Kimmage Development Studies Centre (KDSC), was founded in 1974, and operating until 2018 when it was merged into
Maynooth University. •
Kimmage Mission Institute (KMI) – Institute of Theology and Cultures, Kimmage Manor, Dublin, founded 1991 (in association with other missionary congregations), moved to
Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy in 2003, formally merged with Milltown in 2006. Spiritans of the Irish Province and Spiritan Associates serve in some 20 countries including Ireland. They administer a number of parishes in west Dublin as well as one in the Diocese of Elphin.
Irish Provincial Superiors • Jules Botrel • Richard Harnett • Brian McLaughlin • Enda Watters (1976-1982) • Roddy Curran (1988-1994) • Brian Starken (2006-2012) • Marc Whelan (2012-2018) • Martin Kelly (since 2018)
Mauritius Spiritans in the 1840s dedicated themselves to working with newly freed
slaves on the islands of
Haiti,
Mauritius and
Réunion. The Spiritans created the college du Saint Esprit, a French and English speaking college in Mauritius.
Mexico Today, Mexican-born Spiritans outnumber Spiritan missionaries from other countries. Spiritans run a seminary program in Mexico.
Netherlands The Dutch congregation was founded by Albert Sebire in 1905. A number of Spiritans from the Netherlands have played a significant role for the order, including Frans Timmermans who served as Superior, Bishops Bernhard Gerhard Hilhorst and Herman Jan van Elswijk who served as Bishops of
Morogoro in Tanzania, which the province was in charge of.
Trinidad and Tobago The Spiritans run three schools in
Trinidad and Tobago: •
Saint Mary's College established in 1863 •
Our Lady of Fatima College established in 1945 • Saint Anthony's College (Trinidad)
United States Province In 1794 a Spiritan refugee of the
French Revolution in Guiana started a new mission in the U.S. However, it was only after Archbishop
John Baptist Purcell repeatedly asked between 1847 and 1851 for personnel to staff a seminary in Cincinnati that Spiritans arrived steadily. Other dioceses such as Savannah, Florida, Philadelphia, and Natchez also requested personnel. The province of the United States, founded in 1873, had a novitiate and senior scholasticate at Ferndale in the
Diocese of Hartford, and an apostolic college at
Cornwells near
Philadelphia. The main object of these institutions was to train missionaries to work among the poor, especially ethnic minorities. The Spiritans concentrated on the Pittsburgh area. Despite knowing of four failures of setting up a Catholic college in Pittsburgh, the Spiritans persisted in setting up an institution which became
Duquesne University. In East Africa, where most of the American Spiritans now serve, they began to work in the 1860s by buying men and women out of slavery in
Zanzibar. They opened schools and hospitals, taught people marketable skills, and gave property to those who needed it. The Spiritans pioneered modern missionary activity in Africa and ultimately sent more missionaries there than any other
religious institute in the
Catholic Church. For decades the Spiritans worked closely with
Katherine Drexel in the apostolate to African-Americans in the urban North and in small towns and cities of the South and Southwest. The Spiritans in America concentrate on work among immigrants, black parishes, and education in Duquesne University and
Holy Ghost Preparatory School, near Philadelphia. Historically, they have sent missionaries to
Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Puerto Rico, Latin America, and
Ethiopia. As of 2022 Spiritans are focusing on Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, and Taiwan. In 1964 there was a separation at the Mississippi River between a Western Province and an Eastern Province, but both provinces reunited. Candidates in theological formation are sent to
Catholic Theological Union in Chicago where several Spiritans teach. In 2012 the province established the Spiritan Office for Mission Advancement(SOMA)to animate the Congregations mission works.
SOMA implements its mission by financially resourcing and practically supporting the missionary, educational, pastoral, humanitarian and charitable projects and programs of the Congregation and the U.S. Province both in the United States and internationally. In addition to responding to natural disasters such as earthquakes, cyclones, typhoons, crop infestations, draughts, famines, and viral infections such as Ebola and COVID-19, SOMA’S mission priorities include: Evangelization: related projects: catechesis, lay missionary religious training, missionary bicycles and teaching materials, church construction Education: school construction, student scholarships, desks and chairs, computer lab, training materials Economic and community Development: sustainable farming, women's sewing cooperative, parish bakeries, women's empowerment. technical skills training Health and wellness: supplemental food, emergency generators, electricity delivery, solar paneling, rain water catchment systems, boreholes, water tanks, toilet facilities, medical dispensary construction, medical equipment and supplies, supplemental feeding Priestly Formation: seminarian tuition support, supplemental feeding, teaching aids Social Justice: women and men's rehabilitation center, cots for prison detainees, orphan care, refugee housing In 2023 the U.S. Province celebrated its 150th anniversary.
Vietnam The Spiritans arrived in Vietnam in September 2007. the Congregation has three communities in
Ho Chi Minh City, with more than 40 members. == Causes of canonization ==