Mill Hill Missionaries

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MILL HILL MISSIONARIES

Officially called St. Joseph's Missionary Society of Mill Hill (MHM, Official Catholic Directory #0830), a society of secular priests and brothers devoted exclusively to worldwide missionary work, it was founded at Mill Hill, London, England, in 1866 by Father Herbert vaughan (later cardinal archbishop of Westminster). The society represented one of the first conscious efforts of post-emancipation English Catholics to shoulder their missionary responsibilities. Vaughan recruited members from any country able to supply them; Holland and the Tyrolean region contributed largely. The society received final approval by the Holy See in 1908.

The society's first mission in the United States (1871) eventually grew into an independent community,

the josephite fathers, who labor among African Americans. In 1951 the Mill Hill Fathers returned to the United States to recruit members for their worldwide mission. The U.S. headquarters is in Hartsdale, NY. The generalate is in Mill Hill, a suburb of London, England.

[n. hanrahan/eds.]