Foundation

The congregation was founded by Théophile Verbist, who was a diocesan priest in the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels in the mid-19th century. He served as chaplain to the military academy in Brussels and at the same time as a national director of the Pontifical Association of the Holy Childhood. He would lead a group of other Belgian diocesan priests, who became deeply concerned with the abandoned children in China and with the millions in China which, at the time, suffered from widespread poverty. The congregation is named after a religious Marian devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and has sought to expand its missionary work in various countries abroad.^[6]

Early Activities

With the Convention of Peking occurring, the CICM would begin establishing operations in the country in the early 1860s. In 1862, Verbist founded the Belgian Mission in China. Upon seeking ecclesiastical permission, however, they were commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Barnabò to begin their work by founding a seminary in Belgium to supply priests for the beginning mission, laying the foundations of the Scheutveld College, 28 April 1863, in the Field of Scheut near Brussels. As a result, the C.I.C.M. missionaries were also known as Scheutists or Scheut missionaries.

In September 1863, the first group of missionaries set forth for Inner Mongolia. In the winter of 1865, Verbist and his four companions arrived in inner Mongolia, which was entrusted to the fledgling congregation by Rome, and immediately began organizing small Christian communities. Three years later on February 23, 1868, Verbist died of typhoid fever at the age of 44 in Lao-Hu-Kou.

The Scheutveld priests and brothers would face dangers such as the Boxer Rebellion in China, the climate of the nations in which missions were conducted, and persecution of the missionaries and their local congregations.

After World War I, Belgium lay devastated, leading the Missionary Fathers of Scheut to establish a center in a safe location from which they could send out their missionaries. As many Belgian refugees at that time were living in London, it was thought that a church in that city would serve the spiritual needs of the Belgian community of London and also become a base for the Order's missionary activities. In 1922, the Church of Our Lady of Hal was established in a hut on Arlington Road in Camden Town while a permanent church was built opposite this site in 1933.^[7][8]

World War II

During World War II, Father Jozef Raskin,who was a missionary to Inner Mongolia from 1920 to 1934, was made a chaplain in the Belgian army and was a personal advisor to King Leopold III. While he was operating under the code name Leopold Vindictive 200 for the Dutch resistance in 1942, he was captured by the Gestapo and sentenced to death by beheading on October 18, 1943.

Later Years

A gallery of all CICM missionaries at the Scheut House

The congregation would grow in the following years, eventually growing to have a worldwide presence. Originally a Belgian Foundation, CICM has grown into an international religious missionary congregation of men from different races, colors and nationalities.

In connection with their missions, the Fathers opened a number of institutions, such the hospital at St-Trudon, Upper Kassai, for those afflicted with sleeping sickness.

Today, 780 CICM priests and lay brothers are present in Asian countries (e.g. Mongolia, Indonesia, and Japan), Africa, the Americas, and in Europe.

Philippines

• Saint Louis University, Baguio
• Saint Louis College, San Fernando City, La Union
• University of Saint Louis Tuguegarao, Tuguegarao City, Cagayan Valley
• Saint Mary's University, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
• Saint Louis College – Cebu, Mandaue City, Cebu
• Saint Catherine's School (Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya)
• Maryhurst Seminary, Baguio
• Maryhill School of Theology, Quezon City
• Maryshore Seminary, Bacolod City
• Saint Vincent's School, Bontoc, Mountain Province
• Santo Rosario School, Pudtol, Apayao