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REDEMPTORISTS COME TO AMERICA
From an article by Father Harry A. Grile published in
Redemptorist Spirituality
On June 20, 1832, six Redemptorists stepped from a ship in New York City after
more than two months at sea.
 This band of three priests and three brothers were
the first Redemptorists to arrive in the United States. One hundred years
earlier, in November of 1732, at Scala, Italy, Saint Alphonsus Liguori had
founded the Redemptorists, the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.
Had it not been for Saint Clement Hofbauer (1751—1820) the Redemptorists might
have remained a small Italian religious congregation. Hofbauer became a
Redemptorist in Rome in 1785 and was then given the task of planting the
Redemptorists in northern Europe. After years of struggling, his persistent
efforts were crowned only after his death in 1820.
 The Redemptorist pioneers who came to America twelve years later were the fruits
of Clement's labors in Europe. After the Redemptorists arrived in this country,
they settled in the far-flung Diocese of Cincinnati. Their initial task was to
work with the Native Americans and other frontier people, along with a few
scattered pockets of German-speaking pioneers. But after seven years, although
the men were well received and their work benefited the people of the region,
this early band still had not found a place where they could live together as a
religious community.
In 1839, under the leadership of Father Joseph Prost, the Redemptorists accepted
the parish of Saint Philomena in Pittsburgh, PA. There they were able to live in
community and do pastoral work that would support their efforts. With more
recruits coming from Europe, foundations in Rochester, NY, and Baltimore, MD,
soon followed. The Redemptorists had found their place in the US, managing to
effectively minister to German immigrants in a parochial setting.
 Throughout the 1840s, a steady number of new recruits from Europe joined the
ranks of those already laboring in America. Eventually, men living in America
asked to join the Congregation. One of the first was John Nepomucene Neumann, a
young Bohemian priest from the Diocese of New
York. In 1847 John Neumann was appointed Superior of all the Redemptorists in
America, and five years later, on his forty-first birthday, he was consecrated
Bishop of Philadelphia. He died in 1860; in 1977 he became the first US male
citizen to be canonized.
 Redemptorist parishes flourished in Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia and
New Orleans, and eventually in Chicago, Detroit, Seattle and San Antonio. In
each parish, Redemptorists offered many specialized services to the people, most
of whom were recent immigrants from Europe. The Congregation built and staffed
parish schools, instituted numerous parish-related organizations and encouraged
devotions to Mary and the saints.
From the base community of the immigrant parishes, the Redemptorists were able
to undertake the other work at which they were adept: preaching parish missions,
or "Catholic revivals," as they are sometimes called. The Redemptorists earned a
well-deserved reputation for being powerful preachers of the Word, and by 1851
they had established a group whose full-time work was preaching parish missions.
These missions have become a Redemptorist trademark not only in this country,
but around the world. Throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th, hardly
a parish existed in the US that did not have a mission preached by a
Redemptorist. The purpose of these missions was to help Catholics preserve their
Catholic identity in an
often hostile
environment.
Besides staffing parishes -
which
became more varied, and
as time
progressed
were no longer limited to German immigrants - the Redemptorists in the 20th
century extended their preaching apostolate to include retreat houses. People
could come and spend a weekend in places like West End, NJ; Glenview, IL; and
Tucson, AZ. Retreatants renewed and deepened their faith lives under the
pastoral direction of the Redemptorist preachers.
 In 1850, the American Province, consisting of nine houses, was established from
the Belgian Province. By 1875, the Redemptorists had grown so much — both in
numbers and in the places they staffed — that the original province was divided
into the St. Louis and the Baltimore Provinces. By the middle of the 20th
century, the Redemptorists had five geographical units in the US; the provinces
of Baltimore, St. Louis and Oakland; and the vice provinces of Richmond,
Virginia, and New Orleans.
A sign of maturity for a local church is the ability to send missionaries to
bring the Good News to others. In 1902, the Baltimore Province sent missionaries
to Puerto Rico, then to the American Virgin Islands and later to the Dominican
Republic; in 1929 to Brazil and later to Paraguay. The St. Louis Province sent
them to the Amazon region of Brazil in 1943 and to Thailand in 1948. In Canada
there were four provinces: Toronto, Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre, Edmonton and Yorkton.
The Canadian provinces had missionaries in Japan, Haiti and Ukraine.
The spirit of Saint Alphonsus continues to animate more than 6,000 Redemptorists
throughout the world. In the United States and Canada, more than 1,000
Redemptorist priests and brothers continue this spreading of the Good News of
Christ the Redeemer, with whom there is plentiful redemption.
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