Pauline Marie Jaricot
History
The Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith is one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, founded in France in 1822 through the insight and initiative of a young French laywomen, Pauline Marie Jaricot. Pauline was committed to the formation of a missionary conscientiousness’ in the Christians in order to aid the Church in its task of preaching the Gospel and establishing it in areas of the world where it had not been before. She saw the renewal of the Church in France following the Revolution was linked with a renewed zeal for the missions.
Who was Pauline?
Born into a wealthy family in Lyon on July 22, 1799, Pauline M. Jaricot received a good Christian upbringing. She could have lived a life of privilege but instead committed herself to raising funds and awareness for the world missions. Thanks to her brother, Philéas, a student preparing to leave as a missionary to China, she learned about the critical situation the missions were going through. As a teenager she appealed to girls who were working in her brother-in-law’s factory to make a contribution of one penny a week in order to support abandoned children in China.
Soon others joined to help support the missions. At only 17 years of age, she privately took the vow of chastity and made a resolute decision to do all she could to support the missionaries’ activity. In 1817 she organized the first collections for the missions and promoted a great missionary movement based on a spirituality that soon went beyond the French borders and extended throughout the world. Her life was entirely enlightened by faith and lived in love of God and the commitment to help the neediest at all latitudes. She died in Lyon on January 9, 1892. On February 25, 1963, Paul John XXIII proclaimed Pauline Marie Jaricot “Venerable ”
The Society
The society was officially born on May 3, 1822 in Lyon with the name: Association of the Propagation of the Faith. exactly century later on May 3, 1922, Pius XI gave it the title “Pontifical”. Its central offices were transferred to Rome to collaborate better with the Congregation for the Evangelization of People in promoting the missionary spirit and activity.
Our Mission
This Society for the Propagation of the Faith has the goal of opening every believer’s heart to the vastness of the missionary horizon through spiritual and material support for the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Through a constant and vigorous commitment to missionary formation and animation it promotes:
- Missionary spirituality, which through prayer and sacrifice contributes to rekindling the missionary ardor of the Christian communities and the Individual faithful through meditation on the Word of God, Eucharistic Adoration and the Missionary Rosary.
- Universal solidarity through contributions the universal solidarity fund for the evangelization of the world, in a special way on world mission day, which is celebrated on the next to the last Sunday of October, an event for the people of God to share in the Churche’s Catholicity. The PSPF International Secretariat has the task to urge the local Churches to be open to universal missionary cooperation and to distribute in the Pope’s name what is collected around the world during World Mission Sunday. This gesture highlights what was established by the Second Vatican Council which exhorted every believer to get personally into the missionary dynamism of the whole church.