Joseph’s, Saint, Society for Coloured Missions, began its labours in 1871, when four young priests from Mill Hill were put in charge of St. Francis Xavier’s church, with a large congregation of coloured Catholics, in Baltimore. Other negro missions were soon begun at Louisville, Charleston, Washington, Richmond, Norfolk, and other places in the South. The society in the United States increased so rapidly and its missions were so successful that in 1892 it was made independent of Mill Hill and established its headquarters at Baltimore. At present it has 49 priests who have charge of 35 missions in the Archdioceses of Baltimore and New Orleans and in the Dioceses of Covington, Dallas, Galveston, Little Rock, Mobile, Nashville, Natchez, Richmond, Wilmington, and San Antonio. The society moreover conducts four educational institutions, viz., St. Joseph’s Seminary in Baltimore, where missionaries for the coloured missions are trained; Epiphany Apostolic College, Walbrook, Baltimore, which is a preparatory school for St. Joseph’s Seminary; St. Joseph’s Catechetical College near Montgomery, Alabama, where young coloured men are trained to become catechists and teachers among their people; and St. Joseph’s Industrial School at Clayton, Delaware, which is an agricultural and trade school for coloured boys.
The Colored Harvest, quarterly organ of the society in the United States (Baltimore, 1886—); The Josephite, quarterly organ of St. Joseph’s College for negro catechists (Montgomery, Alabama, 189—).
Michael Ott.