Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate

The history of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) starts at the beginning of the 19th century in south-eastern France.

Saint Eugene de Mazenod was the son of wealthy aristocratic parents. He experienced two inner graces and decided to become a Catholic priest, to be "the servant and priest of the poor".

He desired to devote himself to finding a human dignity often questioned by the miserable living conditions of his time. He placed his work under the patronage of Mary Immaculate (only a few decades before the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1854) and, with some other priests from the Marseilles area, he founded the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1816.

Twenty five years later, in 1841, the Oblates accepted a first mission out of Europe, to Quebec, at the request of Bishop Le Bourget, bishop of Montreal. Their influence spread rapidly, largely in Canada and the United States.