Congregation founded at Ghent, Belgium in 1817 by Canon van Crombrugghe for the Christian education of the poor. Father Crombrugghe drew up a few rules which were the basis of the future constitutions,and the first community of Josephites opened at Grammont in 1817 a house known as Jerusalem. The next year the founder gave a constitution to his religious and the first Josephites bound themselves by the three customary vows. During the first 13 years of its existence the order educated between 3000,4000 boys. In 1830 when Dutch rule in Belgium was discontinued and liberty of instruction was included in the new constitution, the Josephites began to take an active part in the work of education. They were in demand everywhere for the direction of schools and colleges, so that the original object of the institute was gradually modified. Under the generalship of Father Ignatius, many new houses were opened, the two most important being those at Melle and Louvain. Great progress was made by the congregatiqn under Father Remy de Sadeleer and in 1863 it obtained a laudatory Brief from the Holy See. In 1869 the Josephites opened a college at Croydon, England. The mother-house is at Gammont.
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