Congregation of the Holy Spirit

Roman Catholic congregation of priests, lay brothers, and lay associates

Claude Poullart des Places was born on 26 February 1679, in Rennes, the capital city of Brittany, France. He was the eldest child and only son of Francis des Places and Jeanne le Meneust. Claude was tutored at home before being enrolled at the age of nine or ten as a day student in the nearby Jesuit College of St. Thomas, thus beginning his lifelong association with the Society of Jesus. Graduating at 16, Claude studied at the University of Caen, Normandy, before graduating at 22 with a Licentiate in Law from the Law School of Nantes. In 1701 Claude Poullart began his studies for the priesthood, as a boarder at the Jesuit College in Paris. However, he soon left his college room to share lodgings with the poorer day students who often struggled to find food, lodgings, and facilities for their studies. With a dozen of such students, Poullart des Places opened the Seminary of the Holy Spirit. It gradually developed into a religious society.

The Spiritans were founded in Paris on Whit Sunday (Pentecost), 1703. Having opted for the priesthood, Claude Poullart des Places wanted to form a religious institute for young men who had vocations to become priests but were too poor to do so. He became especially interested in such students, and supported them with his own funds and donations from friends. In 1707 Poullart was ordained a priest. His work grew rapidly; and the foundation developed. But Poullart developed pleurisy and died on 2 October 1709, at age thirty one. After the founder's death, the Congregation of the Holy Spirit continued to progress. It became fully organized, and received the approbation of civil and ecclesiastical authorities. Those in France served in various dioceses or alongside the de Montfort missionaries, due to the close friendship between Poullart and Louis de Montfort. The Congregation had trained 1,300 priests in the years leading up to 1792, when the seminary was suppressed by the French Revolution. Some Spiritans sought refuge in England, Switzerland, and Italy.

After the French Revolution, only one member, James Bertout, remained. He had survived miraculously, through a series of vicissitudes – shipwreck on the way to his destined mission in French Guiana, enslavement by the Moors, and a sojourn in Senegal, where he had been sold to the English, who then ruled there. On his return to France, after peace was restored to the Church, he re established the congregation and continued its work. But it was found impossible to recover adequately from the disastrous effects of the dispersion caused by the Revolution, and the restored society was threatened with extinction. But as he had only one priest and a catechist at his disposal, he went to France to recruit missioners. Libermann supplied him at once with seven priests and three coadjutor brothers. By 1844, five members of this first group had died, either in Africa or at sea. Father Libermann and his associates retained the African mission; gradually they established new Christian communities on the continent. By 1913, nearly 700 missionaries had died while serving in Africa. Their work resulted in establishing the Diocese of Angola and the eight Vicariates of Senegambia, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Ubangi (or French Upper Congo), Loango (or French Lower Congo), on the West Coast, and Northern Madagascar, Zanzibar, Bagamoyo, on the East Coast. Prefectures were developed in Lower Nigeria, French Guinea, Lower Congo (Landana), and a mission at Bata in Spanish West Africa. Belgium, and the Netherlands, intended to develop into distinct provinces, so as to supply the colonies of these respective countries with an increase of missionaries. In Rome, on 24 April 1979, Pope John Paul II presided over the beatification ceremony for Jacques Désiré Laval, the first member of the Spiritans to be so honoured.

The Spiritans' goal is always to establish a viable local faith community with its own leadership, while incorporating the language and customs of the people. Spiritans live in community and practice the evangelical counsels. The congregation's international headquarters is in Rome. The 2019 General Chapter was held in Tanzania. As of 2019, more than 2,800 Spiritans served in 62 countries on five continents. Father Van Kaam was notable for his work in psychology and spirituality. He also wrote a key work on Venerable Father Libermann, one of the Spiritans' founders. Father Koren was a historian of the Congregation and a philosopher. In other countries, such as Mexico, the Spiritans were invited by local Catholic bishops to minister to Catholics in remote areas where there were not enough diocesan priests to serve the growing numbers of faithful.

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 different countries.

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.

Today, Mexican born Spiritans outnumber Spiritan missionaries from other countries. Spiritans run a seminary program in Mexico.

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.

In 1794 a Spiritan refugee of the French Revolution in Guiana started a new mission in the U. S. the Spiritans acknowledged in 2022 that they had paid out over €5m (£4.4m) in settlements for sexual abuse cases since 2004. In 2022 the Garda Síochána (Irish police) were involved in the investigation; 233 people had made allegations against 77 members of the Spiritans. Martin Kelly, leader of the Spiritans, admitted and apologised for abuse. At least six abusers are known to have operated at Blackrock College. The allegations concern cases in Ireland; there is evidence that perpetrators taught in Sierra Leone and Nigeria.