Jump to content

Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament

From Catholicism Wiki
Congregatio Sanctissimi Sacramenti (Latin)[1]
Emblem of the Sacramentinos
Emblem of the Sacramentinos
Abbreviation Post-nominal letters: S.S.S.[1]
Formation 13 May 1856[1]
Founder Pierre-Julien Eymard[1]
Founded at Paris, France
Type Clerical Religious Congregation of Pontifical Right (for Men)[1]
Headquarters Mother house
Via G. B. De Rossi 46, 00161 Rome, Italy[1]
Coordinates 41°55′02.4″N 12°31′07.2″E / 41.917333°N 12.518667°E
Members 883 members (includes 591 priests) as of 2020[1]
Motto Latin:
Adveniat Regnum Tuum Eucharisticum
English:
Thy Eucharistic Kingdom Come
Superior General Philip Benzy Romician[1]
Ministry Eucharistic apostolate
Nickname Sacramentino
Main organ Emmanuel (English)
Parent organization Catholic Church
Website www.ssscongregatio.org

The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (Latin: Congregatio Sanctissimi Sacramenti), commonly known as the Sacramentinos, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men, founded by Peter Julian Eymard. Its members use the postnominal letters S.S.S. They assist the Catholic Church in its efforts to form Christian communities whose center of life is the Eucharist. They commit themselves to the implementation of this ideal in collaboration with lay men and women engaged in various ministries.

History

The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament was founded in Paris France on 13 May 1856 by a French priest, Peter Julian Eymard. As he searched for a response to the needs and challenges of his time, he found the answer in the love of God manifested in a special way in the Eucharist. During Eymard's lifetime, the character of French Catholicism was changing from a religion of guilt and fear to a religion based on God's mercy and love. Eymard was a leading figure in this transition.[2]

Founder – Peter Julian Eymard

Eymard was born 4 February 1811 in La Mure, Isère, France. He was a contemporary and friend of Peter Chanel, John Vianney, Marcellin Champagnat, and the sculptor, Auguste Rodin. On 20 July 1834 Eymard was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Grenoble, and in 1839 he joined the Marist Fathers. He worked with the Third Order of Mary and other lay organizations promoting devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Eucharist, particularly the Forty Hours Devotion.

Eymard became familiar with the practice of sustained eucharistic worship during a visit to Paris in 1849, when he met with members of the Association of Nocturnal Adorers who had established exposition and perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at the Basilica of Our Lady of Victories.[2] Eymard, with permission from the Paris bishops, on 13 May 1856, left the Marist order and founded the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament for men. The first community was established at 114 rue d'Enfer, Paris.[2] In 1858 he, along with Marguerite Guillot, founded the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, a contemplative congregation for women.

Eymard died on 1 August 1868.[3] He was declared venerable in 1908, beatified in 1925, and canonized by Pope John XXIII on 9 December 1962. On 9 December 1995, Eymard was inserted into the General Roman Calendar with the rank of optional memorial.

Eymard's mission in the church consisted in promoting the centrality of the Eucharistic Mystery in the whole life of the Christian community, as the font and fullness of all evangelization and striking expression of the infinite love of the divine Redeemer for humankind. Since the Holy Eucharist clearly marked the life and pastoral activity of Peter Julian Eymard, he is known as an outstanding apostle of the Eucharist.

The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament began working with children in Paris to prepare them to receive their First Communion. It also reached out to non-practicing Catholics, inviting them to repent and begin receiving Communion again. In 1859 he opened a second community at Marseilles and placed in charge of it his first companion, Fr. Raymond De Cuers. A third foundation was established at Antwerp and two others at Brussels, along with a formation house or novitiate at Saint-Maurice in the Diocese of Versailles.[3]

Eucharistic charism

Members of the congregation believe that Christ in the Eucharist has the power to effect a radical transformation in the society and in all people, motivating and strengthening everyone to work for the establishment of Christ's Kingdom on earth. Each religious proclaims the reality of God's love in the Eucharist by his "gift of self" to Him and his brothers and sisters. By prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament and an active apostolic life, he strives to make Christ in the Eucharist better known and loved.

Eymard was a tireless proponent of frequent Holy Communion, an idea given more authoritative backing by Pope Pius X in 1905.

Mission

Following in the footsteps of Eymard, the mission of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament is "to respond to the hungers of the human family with the riches of God's love manifested in the Eucharist."[4]

Conscious of a call to bear prophetic witness to the Eucharist, members of the congregation commit themselves to the renewal of church and society through this sacrament, especially by gathering communities characterized by hospitality, reconciliation, and service; and celebrating the Eucharist as the source and summit of the life of the church.[5]

By their lives and activities, they share in the mission of the church, so that the Eucharist may be celebrated in truth, that the faithful may grow in their communion with the Lord through Eucharistic adoration in the setting of solemn exposition, that they may commit themselves to the renewal of their Christian communities, and collaborate in liberating individuals and society from the forces of evil.[6]

United in Spirit with those who are poor and weak, they oppose everything which degrades human dignity and they proclaim a more just and brotherly world as they await the coming of the Lord.

The Congregation today

Since its founding, the members of the congregation have reached all continents of the globe and continue the mission begun by Peter Julian Eymard. Currently numbering a little less than a thousand religious, they are present in thirty countries.[7]

Notable members

  • Archbishop Aldo di Cillo Pagotto
  • Bishop Jorge Alves Bezerra
  • Bishop Sofronio Aguirre Bancud
  • Bishop Martin Boucar Tine
  • Bishop Julian Winston Sebastian Fernando
  • Bishop Édouard Kisonga Ndinga
  • Bishop Paulo Mandlate
  • Bishop Johannes Gerardus Maria van Burgsteden

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament — An enclosed congregation and a reform of the Dominican Order devoted to the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. It was founded in the face of great opposition by Father Anthony Le Quieu, a French Dominican, whose canonization was stopped by the French Revolution. Born in 1601 at Paris, he entered the Order of Friars Preachers in the Rue St. Honoré, in 1622, and was in due time made master of novices first in his own monastery, and afterwards at Avignon (1634). While at the latter place (1639), he began to lay the foundation of the institute he desired to establish, but it was not rill twenty years later (1659) that, after great difficulty, the first house was opened at Marseilles for the three ladies whom the saintly founder had begun to train at Avignon. The Bishop of Marseilles gave them the habit the following year, approved the rule and constitutions Father Le Quieu had drawn up, and erected them into a simple congregation. It was not till after the death of the founder, who lived to see another foundation made at Bollène, that the constitutions were approved by Pope Innocent XII (1693), who authorized the nuns to take solemn vows and bound them to enclosure. This was the first congregation instituted for the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; it is not an austere one, but the degree of perfection put before the members by the founder is very high. The original mother-house at Marseilles was suppressed at the French Revolution, when the nuns were dispersed, but it was reopened in 1816; the Bollène houses suffered more severely. Thirteen of the nuns endured martyrdom under the Commune; their cause of beatification is now before the Holy See; the remainder of the Bollène community returned to their convent and resumed their work of perpetual adoration in 1802. The Bollène nuns sent three of their number with one lay sister, under the Reverend Mother Emilie Pellier to England to found a house at Cannington (1863), a community which was afterwards moved to Taunton in Somersetshire, where it has since remained. There is also a house at Oxford, and another near Newport. After Father Le Quieu's death foundations were made in the south of France, and after the French Revolution other houses were founded in the same locality. Since then a house has been established in Normandy, from which another convent has been opened at Hal in Belgium. There are no houses of this congregation in America.

PALLOT, Vie du Père Antoine Le Quieu (1847); STEELE, Convents of Great Britain (St. Louis, 1902), 117.

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Back to citation occurrence 1.2 Back to citation occurrence 1.3 Back to citation occurrence 1.4 Back to citation occurrence 1.5 Back to citation occurrence 1.6 Back to citation occurrence 1.7 "Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (S.S.S.)".
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 "Blessed Sacrament - Our Story". www.blessedsacrament.com.au. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  3. Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 "Fumigalli, S.S.S., Flavio. "A Short Reflection on the Spirituality of Saint Peter Julian Eymard", Blessed Sacrament Religious - Europe". Archived from the original on 2014-05-31. Retrieved 2013-06-30.
  4. Back to citation "About the Vocation Office - Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament". Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  5. Back to citation ""Mission", Blessed Sacrament Religious - Europe". Archived from the original on 2014-06-01. Retrieved 2013-06-30.
  6. Back to citation "Our Ministries - Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament". Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  7. Back to citation "Provinces and Regions - SSS Congregatio". Retrieved 2017-07-07.

Bibliography

41°55′01.8″N 12°31′04.5″E / 41.917167°N 12.517917°E

Retrieved from "https://catholicism.wiki/index.php?title=Congregation_of_the_Blessed_Sacrament&oldid=62868"