The Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette
(M.S.
- Missionarium Saletiniensis) are a religious
congregation of priests and brothers in the
Latin Church, one of the 23 sui iuris churches
which make up the Catholic Church which is
led by the Bishop of Rome.
They are named after the apparition of Our
Lady of La Salette in France.
There is also a parallel religious community
of sisters called the Missionary Sisters of
Our Lady of La Salette.
A lay fraternal group of associates also works
in cooperation with the vowed religious.
The Missionaries are dedicated to making known
the message of Our Lady of La Salette, a call
to healing of inner brokenness and personal
reconciliation with God, especially as found
in the first three commandments.
The missionaries are popularly known as "the
La Salettes."
== Description ==
Statues from the site of the apparition in
the tiny mountain village of La Salette, in
the commune of Corps France depict Our Lady
addressing two children.
The distinctive La Salette crucifix bears
a small hammer and pincers on either side
of the cross as worn by Our Lady.
The hammer traditionally symbolizes the instrument
that crucified Christ and the pincers symbolize
the instrument that removes the nails.
The crucifix was adopted by the La Salette
as their distinctive symbol.
Worldwide, the religious institute numbers
over one thousand members located in North
and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia
and Africa.
In North America the members work in more
than a dozen U.S. states and in the Canadian
provinces of Quebec and Ontario.
The congregation helps maintain devotional
religious shrines, such as the National Shrine
of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro, Massachusetts,
and works in various Catholic parishes throughout
the country.
The La Salette Shrine in Attleboro is particularly
well known for its Retreat Center and its
"Festival of Lights" during the Christmas
season which attracts over 250,000 visitors
yearly.
In Latin America, Africa, Australia and Asia,
the community does missionary work in a number
of countries, including Angola, Argentina,
Bolivia, Brazil, India, Madagascar, Myanmar
and the Philippines.
The congregation continues to care for pilgrims
at shrines, serves its University system in
the Philippines and conducts retreats at its
centers and conducts parish missions, serves
in home and foreign missions parishes, guides
youth ministries, operates counseling centers,
and provides personnel for chaplaincies in
hospitals and in the military.
== History ==
The Missionaries of La Salette were founded
in 1852 by Philibert de Bruillard (1765 - 1860),
the Bishop of Grenoble, in southeastern France,
as a testimony to Our Lady's appeal to "make
(her message) known to all her people."
Immediately thereafter, he assigned some of
his priests to care for the numerous pilgrims
frequenting the mountain shrine.
In 1858 these priests formed a religious community
with temporary constitutions, under the immediate
charge of the Bishop of Grenoble.
In 1876 Mgr.
Fava approved their more complete constitution,
and in May, 1890, the Institute was approved
by Rome, thus becoming a religious community
of Pontifical Right.
Finding it hard to recruit from the secular
clergy, the congregation founded an Apostolic
school or missionary college in 1876.
After a six-year classical course, students
entered a novitiate where they studied the
vows and religious life obligations.
Upon profession of their first simple vows
of poverty, chastity and obedience, they entered
the scholasticate in Rome, to complete their
philosophical and theological studies at the
Pontifical Gregorian University.
In 1892, after pursuing possible bases in
Canada and Texas, five Missionaries established
themselves in Hartford, Connecticut with fifteen
students.
Bishop McMahon of Hartford, Connecticut, welcomed
them into his diocese, and they occupied the
bishop's former residence.
In 1895 they moved to new quarters in Hartford,
Connecticut, at the new parish church of Our
Lady of Sorrows.
The Missionaries began their ministry on Ascension
Day of the same year.
In 1894, having established themselves in
the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts,
the congregation received the parish of St.
Joseph, Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
In 1895, member John Berthier formed Missionaries
of the Holy Family, which was organized to
meet the needs of men who desired to become
priests later in their life, and which is
a spiritual kin organization to the Missionaries
of La Salette.
In 1901, at the suggestion of Bishop Beaven
of Springfield, the congregations's Superior
General sent a few students to Poland to prepare
themselves for Polish parishes in the Springfield
Diocese.
In 1902 they were received into the Diocese
of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada and also into
the Archdiocese of New York.At the request
of Archbishop Langevin of St. Boniface, Canada,
a few members were sent from the mother-house
in Hartford to establish themselves in West
Canada with headquarters at Forget, Saskatchewan
from where they served in four parishes.
In 1909 the missionaries deemed their institute
sufficiently developed, owing to additional
foundations in Belgium, Madagascar, Poland,
and Brazil, and the superior general petitioned
the Holy See to approve their constitutions.
The request was granted 29 January 1909.
Restrictions against religious institutes
in France were lifted in 1914, and a number
of the congregations's members served in World
War I, with fifteen losing their lives.
In North America the institute spread their
parish work throughout the United States and
Canada.
The North American mission first established
a province based in Hartford in 1934.
Three more province establishments followed
at Attleboro (1945), St. Louis (1961) and
Georgetown, Illinois (1967).
In 2000 these four North American provinces
were merged to form one new province for the
entire continent, headquartered at Hartford,
Connecticut.
Missionary work to third world nations steadily
expanded throughout the 20th century with
the latest expansions in India, Myanmar and
Indonesia.
== Vows ==
As members of a religious congregation the
La Salettes embrace the evangelical counsels,
taking the three traditional religious vows
of poverty, chastity and obedience.
Poverty means that all possessions are held
in common and that no member may accumulate
wealth.
Chastity means more than abstaining from sexual
activity and its purpose is to make the religious
totally available for service; it is also
a sign that only God can completely fill the
human heart.
For a member of a religious congregation,
obedience is not slavishly doing what one
is told by the superior but being attentive
to God’s will by prayerfully listening to
the voice of the person in charge.
Ultimately, these vows are lived out within
a community and bolstered by a relationship
with God.
== Religious Formation ==
In the initial stages, those interested in
joining the congregation have several meetings
with a La Salette priest, usually with visits
to a community.
Young adults aged 18 and over, meet regularly
to share their experiences of God and what
He may be calling them to become.
During this time the members of the congregation
share what it is like to be a priest, religious
brother.
Those who are enquiring about entering the
congregation are strongly encouraged to attend
Mass as often as possible, to read the Sacred
Scriptures especially the Gospel accounts
and to regularly spend time in prayer in order
to better discern their vocation.
=== Novitiate ===
If the candidate wishes to pursue his vocation
to join the La Salettes he may enter the novitiate
which is the time for preparing to take the
vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
The novitiate year is crucial, for it is then
“…that the novices better understand their
divine vocation, and indeed one which is proper
to the institute, experience the manner of
living of the institute, and form their mind
and heart in its spirit, and so that their
intention and suitability are tested.”
Thus, the novices are given the opportunity
for longer periods of prayer and spiritual
reading as well as silence in order to reflect
on the vocation God is offering and nature
of their response.
The spiritual development of the novice is
of particular focus, especially through spiritual
direction.
During the novitiate the history and Constitutions
of the Congregation are studied in depth.
A simple profession is made at the end of
the novitiate and the person officially becomes
a member of the congregation for “By religious
profession, members assume the observance
of the three evangelical counsels by public
vow, are consecrated to God through the ministry
of the Church, and are incorporated into the
institute with the rights and duties defined
by law.”
=== Post Novitiate ===
After the novitiate, the new members of the
congregation continue their studies; those
called to be brothers pursue a relevant course.
Those men called to serve the People of God
in the Priesthood take a courses in philosophy
and theology after which follows ordination
to the diaconate and the priesthood; final
vows for those called to Holy Orders come
just before the diaconate.
For brothers, vows are renewed annually; after
three years a member may request final vows.
According to Canon law, temporary vows may
be renewed for a longer period but not exceeding
nine years.
== See also ==
Our Lady of La Salette
== References ==
== 
External links ==
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913).
"Missionaries of La Salette".
Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Missionaries of La Salette official website
Missionaries of La Salette vocations website
The apparition at La Salette This article
incorporates text from a publication now in
the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed.
(1913).
"Missionaries of La Salette".
Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton.
