Apostolic school
Encyclopedia
An apostolic school is a missionary college of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

, having for its object to cultivate vocations for foreign missions.

History

Apostolic schools, as distinct from junior ecclesiastical seminaries, owed their origin to Father Alberic de Foresta, S.J. (b. 1818; d. 1876). He formed the design of opening a school where youths who gave promise of an ecclesiastical vocation, and who were disposed to go and labour on foreign missions, might be properly trained. With the approval of his superiors, Father de Foresta opened the first apostolic school at Avignon
Avignon
Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...

 in 1865 The course of studies in the apostolic school comprised training in the Latin and Greek classics, in modern languages, and in mathematics. The residence of the scholars was near one of the colleges of the Society of Jesus
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

; the pupils attended classes along with the students of the college.

In 1868 similar apostolic schools were established at Amiens
Amiens
Amiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy...

 and Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

; in 1869 one was opened at Poitiers
Poitiers
Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...

, in 1871 at Turnhout in Belgium and at New Orleans, in 1873 at Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

, in 1874 at Tananarive, in 1877 at Dole
Dole
Dole may refer to:*The Grain supply to the city of Rome in ancient times.* Since the early 20th Century, a colloquial term referring to government public assistance programs; see Unemployment benefits. Originally it referred to any charitable gift of food, clothing or money. The dole has taken on...

 and at Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...

, and in 1879 at Boulogne-sur-Mer
Boulogne-sur-Mer
-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....

. Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...

, in a Brief dated 12 April, 1867, blessed the work of the apostolic schools, and in Briefs dated 30 June, 1870, and 15 May, 1877, repeated his approval and bestowed indulgences on them and on those who promoted them. Anticlerical legislation in France after 1880 was an obstacle. The apostolic school of Avignon relocated to Eremo Lanzo, in the neighbourhood of Turin. The school at Bordeaux moved to Vitoria, in Spain. The Amiens apostolic school transferred to Littlehampton
Littlehampton
Littlehampton is a seaside resort town and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England, on the east bank at the mouth of the River Arun. It lies south southwest of London, west of Brighton and east of the county town of Chichester....

, in England, and thence to Thieu
Thieu
Thieu is a village in the Belgian province of Hainaut, and a part of the municipality Le Rœulx....

, in the Diocese of Tournai, Belgium. When the schools of Avignon, Amiens, Turnhout, Poitiers, and Bordeaux had been about thirty years in existence, they had educated about one thousand missionaries.

The Jesuit Fathers set up an apostolic school at Mungret College
Mungret College
Mungret College, situated west of Limerick, Ireland, near the village of Mungret, was a Jesuit apostolic school and a lay secondary school from 1882 until 1974 when it closed as a school for the last time. The college produced over 1000 priests in that period...

, near Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...

, in Ireland. The Mungret apostolic school owes its origin to William Ronan, S.J. In the course of his missionary work throughout Ireland Father Ronan had met many boys who gave signs of an ecclesiastical vocation, but who, from lack of means or other causes, were unable to attain the object of their aspirations. Father Ronan was eventually appointed rector of the Jesuit college at Limerick, and he then conceived the idea of opening an apostolic school in connection with that establishment. On 24 September, 1880, a commencement was made with eight pupils. Father Ronan, the first rector, visited the United States in 1884 to raise funds.

Most Catholic religious orders and congregations established apostolic schools for the recruitment of their own ranks or for the foreign missions: the Vincentians, the Salesians, the Fathers of the Holy Ghost, the Mill Hill Missionaries
Mill Hill Missionaries
Mill Hill Missionaries is a society of Catholic missionaries founded in 1866.-External links:* * * http://www.vocationsireland.com/missionpriests/millhill.html...

, the White Fathers
White Fathers
The missionary society known as "White Fathers" , after their dress, is a Roman Catholic Society of Apostolic Life founded in 1868 by the first Archbishop of Algiers, later Cardinal Lavigerie, as the Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa of Algeria, and is also now known as the Society of the...

, the African Missionaries of Lyon, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart
Missionaries of the Sacred Heart
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart is a missionary congregation in the Latin Church,one of the 23 sui iuris churches which make up the Catholic Church led by the Bishop of Rome...

, the Missionaries of Mont-St-Michel, the Dominicans
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

, Franciscans, and Redemptorists.

External links

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