REDEMPTORISTS (Fr. redemptoriste, from Lat. ra(lemptor, redeemer, from rediniere, to buy back, redeem), also called 1.R:roma:es. A eon gregation of missionary priests founded in 1732 by Saint Alphonsus Liguori (q.v.). The members of the Congregation of the Most Iloly Redeemer were bound to seek their own perfection by the obligations and rules of a religious life and to devote themselves to apostolic work among the most neglected and forsaken souls, especially in country places. The instructions given by the members are of the simplest and plainest c•har aetc•r. The congregation was originally founded in Naples, but being approved by Benedict XIV. in 1749, spread rapidly throughout Italy and afterwards extended into Germany and Switzer lam!. The suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 left a hiatus in missionary fields which the rtedemp Wrists were called upon to fill. Ity the end of the eighteenth century the congregation had spread throughout most of the eountt•ies of Eu rope and in the early part of the nineteenth cell tury houses were establishel in North and South America and in Australia.
Saint Alphonsus founded also an Order of Yaw: called IZedemptori-tine.4. This is a strictly con templative Order with a number of convents in Italv, three in Austria. four in Belgium, three in Holland. two in Franco, and one in Ireland. For their constitution and early history, see Dumor tier, Lcs premieres R6demptoristines (Lille, 1884).
The Redemptorists are noted for their faculty of doing effective missionary work among the un cultured classes of the population. Their mis
sionary system includes frequent 'renovations' in effectively to secure the good already done, and the frequent reception of the sacraments Ls recommended for the perpetuation of the fruit of the mis,sions. According to the latest official catalogue of the Redemptorist Order (1901) there are 16 provinces and one vice-province of the con gregation. These are known as the Roman, Nea politan, Sicilian. Lyonese (which has houses in Chile and Peru) , the Austrian, the Belgian (which has houses in Canada, in the West Indies, and in the Congo region) , the Baltimore ( which has a mission in Mayaguez, Porto Rico), the Ba varian (with two houses in Brazil), the Province of Holland (which has a mission in Surinam), the Lower German (with three houses in the Argentine Republic), the English, the Irish with three houses in Australia), the Province of Paris (with three houses in Ecuador and Co lombia), the Spanish, and the Province of St. Louis, U. S., besides the Province of Prague in Bohemia, and the Vice-Province of Alsace-Lor raine. Altogether there are 175 houses, with 3300 members, of whom 1620 are priests, 489 clerical students, 150 choir novices, 733 pro fessed lay brothers, and 300 lay novices. In the United States there are 520 members, of whom 270 are priests. For the history of the Order in America, consult Wnest, Annales Provincia; inericance (Ilchester, Md., 1888).