Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
| Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae | |
Motto of the Congregation:
"One heart and one soul" |
|
| Abbreviation | CICM |
|---|---|
| Formation | c. AD 1862 |
| Founder | Theophiel Verbist |
| Type | Catholic religious order |
| Headquarters | Belgium |
| Website | missionhurst |
The CICM Missionaries (Latin: Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae, or the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary), is a Roman Catholic missionary religious congregation of men established in 1862 by the Belgian Catholic priest, Theophiel Verbist (1823–1868).
Its origins lie in Scheut, Anderlecht, a suburb of Brussels, due to which it is widely known as the Scheut Missionaries. The congregation is most notable for their international missionary works in China, Mongolia, the Philippines and in Congo Free State/Belgian Congo, modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Presently, their international name "CICM Missionaries" is preferred, although, in the United States of America, the congregation is mostly known as Missionhurst.
Verbist was a diocesan priest in the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels in the mid-19th century. He served as chaplain to the military academy in Brussels and at the same time as a national director of the Pontifical Association of the Holy Childhood. A compassionate man of God, he led a group of other Belgian diocesan priests who became deeply concerned with the abandoned children in China and with millions of Chinese who lived at that time in ignorance and poverty. The congregation is named after a religious Marian devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and has sought to expand its missionary work in various countries abroad.
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