131st Anniversary of the Birth of the Society of St. Peter the Apostle (1889)

The Society of St. Peter the Apostle promotes, in Christian communities, an awareness of the need to develop local clergy and consecrated life in recently founded missionary churches. 

It animates and coordinates missionary collaboration in all local churches, through the offer of prayer, sacrifices and money, to support the formation of future priests and men and women religious of young churches, and the necessary preparation of their formators. The Society of St. Peter the Apostle was born in France (1889) at the suggestion of Msgr. Cousin, Apostolic Vicar of Nagazaki, Japan. Msgr. Cousin, missionary bishop, wanted to form indigenous priests, capable of proclaiming the Gospel and making the Church grow among their own people. For this reason, it was necessary to build and support seminaries in 'mission lands'. To carry out this project, Msgr. Cousin turned to Jeanne Bigard and her mother Stefanie, a wealthy family from Normandy. Pope Leo XIII, with the Encyclical Letter Ad extremas Orientis, recommends the Society to the whole Church, and on May 3, 1922, Pius XI declared the Society of St. Peter the Apostle "Pontifical", together with the previous two (Propagation of the Faith and Holy Childhood). "As can easily be seen, priestly and religious vocations blossom in the so-called mission Countries as a sign and fruit of the vitality of the faith and these regions are already transforming into mission Countries - underlined Secretary General Fr. Guy Bognon, P.S.S during the '2019 General Assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies  -. The formation of the young people called, whose number increases every year, requires structures and infrastructures in which POSPA participates with Extraordinary Subsidies".