Theophiel Verbist

Theophile Verbist (12 June 1823 – 23 February 1868) was a Belgian Roman Catholic priest who founded the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a Roman Catholic missionary religious congregation of men. He led missionary activities in China.

Verbist was born in Antwerp, Belgium on June 12, 1823. After brilliant studies at the Minor Seminary and Major Seminary in Mechelen, he was ordained as a priest on 18 September 1847. He was appointed subregent of the Minor Seminary of Mechelen on 1 October 1847.0926121429444

In 1853 he became chaplain of the Military Academy in Brussels. He was simultaneously appointed director of the Sisters of Molenbeek, a Congregation of Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, which worked since 1840 in various countries as missionaries. He became the National Director in Belgium of the Association of the Holy Childhood, a charitable organization established in France to raise funds for orphans in countries with Catholic missions. Through this engagement he became aware of the plight of orphans in China.

In 1860 he conceived the plan to gather Belgian secular priests to travel to China and establish an orphanage. This initiative received the approval of Cardinal Engelbert Sterckx, Archbishop of Mechelen. Cardinal Sterkx insisted that Verbist could only leave if he joined an existing congregation such as the Jesuits, the Recollects, the Paris Foreign Missions Society or the Lazarists who were already active in China or if his mission was incorporated into one of the apostolic vicariates in China. However, Verbist was able to convince the Belgian church leaders and finally obtain the approval of Cardinal Sterckx and the Belgian bishops to establish a new Belgian missionary congregation. The canonical establishment of the congregation by Cardinal Sterckx is dated 28 November 1862. This congregation, which had as its objective to send missionaries to China, was called the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM). It is better known under the name Scheutists, which refers to the place of its foundation, i.e. the "Scheutveld" in Anderlecht (now in Brussels). Theophiel Verbist was appointed by Cardinal Sterckx as the first Superior General.

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