eart of Mary. During the negotiations which led to the restoration of
this society, the Vicariate Apostolic of Madagascar became vacant by the
death of Bishop Dalton. Abbe Monnet, Superior of the Society of the Holy
Ghost, was appointed to succeed him, and Rev. Abbe Liebermann, a
distinguished convert from Judaism, was unanimously elected to the post of
superior-general of the two united societies. The labors of Abbe
Liebermann were crowned with complete success. In 1850, the Holy Father,
in order to confirm and perpetuate the fruit of so much apostolic labor,
erected three bishoprics--one in the low country of Guadeloupe, another at
Fort Francis, in Martinica, and a third at St. Denis, of Bourbon Island.
The eminent convert died in 1852, after having had the satisfaction to
behold such great developments of his missionary work. The death of the
first superior-general did not, by any means, retard the increase of the
new society. On the contrary, new blessings seemed to descend upon it.
Under the guidance of the second superior, the Abbe Schwindenhammer, who
had been the friend and confidential counsellor of the first, the society
came to be as an order of three choirs--Fathers, Friars, Sisters. To the
Rev. Fathers, who were missionaries apostolic, the Father of the great
Christian Family, Pius IX., assigned a field of labor, a hundred times
more extensive than the land which was promised of old to the children of
Israel--a territory from eleven to twelve hundred leagues in length, and
broad in proportion. The friars were lay missionaries, whose duty it was
to assist the Rev. Fathers, teach the neophytes the arts of Christian
civilization, and change the deserts, the wild forest lands and dismal
swamps, into smiling fields. A brother, who is a printer, has already
departed for those missions, carrying with him a complete set of types.
The sisters, in order to draw down the mercy of heaven on the negro lands,
devote themselves to prayer, works of charity and self-denial, perpetual
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and the continual offering of
themselves in sacrifice for the salvation of the souls that are most
neglected. They would even, if it were the call of heaven, repair to
Africa, and found there religious communities, in order to confirm the
good work commenced by the missionaries. So early as their first year,
1852, they had established two or three houses in France. This great
missionary society came into existen