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Organized in Wisconsin, with centre in Little Sturgeon (Door County), dedicated to the Good Shepherd. Centre moved to Gardner, in Precious Blood Church rectory in July 1886. President and Church Overseer: The Rev. J. René Vilatte Other church/mission centres in Bruxelles, Désert, Duval, Green Bay, Marinette, Sturgeon Bay, Valin... Under the authority of the Board, was organized the Society of the Precious Blood (S.P.B.) on July 1, 1887. Precious Blood religious extended the Christian Catholic ministry to the Counties of Brown, Door and Kewaunee, Wisconsin, as well as to other American States and to Canada (Ontario & Quebec). They used the Swiss Christian Catholic Prayer Book and Catechism in French that Father Vilatte had brought with him from Europe, following his ordination to the priesthood in Berne, on June 7, 1885 (+E. Herzog). Contacts with Swiss Christian Catholics had been initiated through Père Hyacinthe Loyson, at the request of Rev. Chiniquy. A Parisian reformer, Père Hyacinthe was a great preacher, like Père Chiniquy, and had been rector of the Christian Catholic Church of St. Germain in Geneva. The S.P.B. was led by Father Jean-Baptiste Gauthier in 1889, following his ordination in Berne, on October 26. Both Rev. Gauthier and Rev. Vilatte received theological training at the Christian Catholic Faculty of the University of Berne, under celebrated Prof. Dr. Eugène Michaud. Both had joined the Chiniquy Movement in Montreal, in 1880. |
