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 Venerable Fr. Francis Libermann, CSSp. (Page 2 of 3) Libermann recruited and educated missionaries, both lay and clerical. He negotiated with Rome and with the French government over the placement and support of his personnel. Francis Libermann was a pioneer of strategies now recognized as a blueprint for modern missionary activity. He urged the Spiritans to "become one with the people" so that each group received and understood the Gospel in the context of their own traditions. Fr. Libermann's zeal was so inspiring that when seminarians in France heard of the deaths of some of the first missionaries to West Africa, they lined up at his door to volunteer as replacements. He exhausted himself in the process of leading his great enterprise, and died on February 2nd, 1852 before his 50th birthday. Surprisingly, Fr. Libermann himself never went overseas. Yet he inspired and empowered literally thousands of missionaries around the globe. Today his spiritual descendents serve in sixty-two countries on five continents, over 3,000 strong. In Europe a dozen Provinces of the Congregation emerged to provide and finance the manpower for Libermann's vision. The Spiritans returned to North America, to Canada, and to the United States in 1872 to minister especially to the minorities, immigrants and ethnic groups. For decades the Holy Ghost Fathers worked closely with St. Katherine Drexel in the apostolate to African - Americans in the urban North and in small towns and cities of the South and Southwest. |
