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Redemptorists serve the poor and most spiritually abandoned. We work in parishes and shrines, minister to immigrants, preach parish missions and retreats, promote devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, and evangelize through traditional preaching and social media.
Following in the footsteps of St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. Gerard Majella, St. Clement Mary Hofbauer, St. John Neumann, and 15 other confreres who have been beatified, there are approximately 4,500 Redemptorists who serve in 82 countries on all five continents helped by many men and women who collaborate in their mission and together form the Redemptorist Family. “Our Lady of Perpetual Help” is the missionary icon of the Congregation.
Our Redemptorist family brings a message of hope and Good News to everyone they encounter: “In Him there is plentiful redemption” (Psalm 130:7)
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St. Alphonsus Liguori was born in Naples, Italy, in 1696. He left a promising legal career against the wishes of his family and became a priest.
Alphonsus dedicated himself completely to the service of the poor and most abandoned, and in 1732 he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer: The Redemptorists. Alphonsus and his companions preached the Word of God in rural and isolated communities around Naples. He died in 1787 at age 90 and was declared a saint in 1839. His feast day is August 1.
By the early 19th century Redemptorists were serving in central Italy, Poland, Germany, Belgium, and Holland.
In 1832 six Redemptorists traveled to the United States at the request of American bishops and began their first missionary work outside of Europe. They worked first among Native Americans and then with Irish, German, and Slavic immigrants.
They ministered to the people and opened parishes and schools, often teaching immigrants the English language.
In 1847 St. John Neumann, born in Bohemia and the first Redemptorist to profess vows in the United States, was appointed superior of all Redemptorists in America. Five years later he was consecrated the fourth bishop of Philadelphia.
He died in 1860 and in 1977 became the first American bishop to be canonized. His feast day is January 5.
In 1850 the Redemptorists’ American Province, consisting of nine houses, was established from the Belgian Province, and headquartered at the Redemptorist seminary in Baltimore.
Redemptorist ministries soon spread throughout the United States and Canada. Missions were established in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, the Virgin Islands, Brazil, and Paraguay.
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The Redemptorists have a special devotion to the crib of Bethlehem, the cross of Calvary, the Eucharist, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
Learn more here about the devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the Redemptorists’ special mandate to “make her known throughout the world” under the title Our Mother (or Our Lady) of Perpetual Help.
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In North America the Redemptorists are divided into three Provinces (Baltimore, Denver, and Canada) and one vice Province (Extra-Patriam Vietnamese). A province is financially self-sufficient and staffed with sufficient priests and brothers to do the work entrusted to it. A vice province is dependent on outside sources for support.
The Vice Province of Extra Patriam was created to work with Catholic Vietnamese who fled to the United States after the fall of Saigon in 1975.
The Baltimore Province in the eastern United States is the oldest province in North America. Despite its name, its headquarters are in Washington, DC. The ministry sites go from Boston, MA in the north to New Smyrna Beach, FL in the south and out to Lima and Bluffton, OH in the west. The Redemptorists are also involved in the mission on the islands of St. Lucia, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Looking for a Redemptorist parish or retreat house? See a complete list of locations here.
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