Foundation

The Spiritans were founded in Paris  on Pentcost Sunday 1703 for the purpose of preparing missionaries for the most abandoned souls, whether in Christian or non-Christian countries by a young, holy ecclesiastic of noble Breton birth and of brilliant talents, a wealthy young Breton  lawyer, Claude-François Poullart des Places, who, three years previously, in the twenty-first year of his age, had given up the bright prospects of a parliamentary lawyer to embrace the ecclesiastical state.

Having opted for the priesthood himself, he wanted to form a religious order  for young men who had a vocation to become priests but were too poor to do so. From the very beginning of his ecclesiastical studies he manifested a particular attraction for lowly and neglected works of charity. He became especially interested in poor, deserving students, on whom he freely spent all his own private means and as much as he could collect from his friends. It was with a dozen of these gathered round him that he opened the Seminary of the Holy Ghost, which afterwards developed into a religious society.

The community, formed in dedication to the Holy Spirit  to minister to the poor and to provide chaplains in hospitals, prisons, and schools, soon developed a missionary role — some volunteered for service in the Far East  and North America  — and by 1765 the Holy See  was entrusting it with direct care of South America and missionary territories like . 1,300 priests had been trained in the years leading up to 1792, when the actions of the seminary was suppressed by the French Revolution..

The work grew rapidly; but the labours and anxieties connected with the foundation proved too much for the frail health of the founder. He died on 2 October, 1709, in the thirty-first year of his age, and in only the third of his priesthood. The portraits which remain of Father Poullart des Places depict a distinguished and intelligent countenance, combining energy with sweetness.

After the founder's death, the Congregation of the Holy Ghost continued to progress; it became fully organized, and received the approbation of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. It sent missionaries to the French colonies, and to India and China, but suffered much from the French Revolution

The congregation's numbers in Europe declined sharply until 1802, when the Napoleonic government allowed the seminary to reopen and the congregation was asked to focus on supplying priests for work in the French colonies in Africa, the West Indies and the India in subcontinent.