The Josephite Fathers were founded in Belgium in 1817 by a diocesan priest, Constant Guillaume Van Crombrugge. Fr. Van Crombrugge founded five different religious congregations, including the Daughters of Mary and Joseph who were instrumental in bringing the Josephites to California in August 1963.
Fr. Van Crombrugge lived during a time of great political turbulence which caused the faith of many to be in great danger, especially the youth. So, he originally founded our group to educate poor boys in order to provide them with a means of livelihood. Later he expanded his apostolate to include all young people so as to attract families with children who might one day be in a position to provide moral leadership to the people. His goal was that the Josephites would help bring Christ and the reality of God's mercy back to the center of a society that seemed to have lost its way.
As a founder of congregations whose main work at the time of their founding was education, a review of some of his writings to educators, and others, can be found on the parish website, in the "Josephite Fathers" section.
Our principal work remains the formation of youth into a love of Christ and the Church He founded, but here in California our work was expanded into parish ministry for the first time. It has also now found its way into the works of our congregation in other regions.
In 1963 the Josephite Fathers arrived in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for the specific purpose of working with the Daughters of Mary and Joseph in the administration of St. Joseph HS, in Santa Maria, which opened in 1964. The first priests who came to the US were from Belgium and England. They spent their first year at Pius X HS in Downey - learning the American system of co-education,something they had never been involved with. Fr. Mark Newman, CJ, who is now in our parish was in that first group of "pioneer Josephites."
Shortly after the opening of St. Joseph HS in 1964, we purchased a 2 ½ acre property at 180 Patterson Rd. The modest L-shaped, six bedroom residential single floor house, with one small room converted to a chapel, served as our novitiate house. (This is a place where young men considering joining the congregation live and study. Religious congregations must provide their own housing for this and retirement purposes.) This home served us well, but we were increasing in numbers and the house, which was poorly constructed, had to be razed. So, with a tremendous amount of local support, and on the same site, on October 22, 1998, we dedicated our new 10,800 sq.ft. regional center and novitiate house, complete with 14 bedrooms, large chapel, dining room and kitchen. This facility demonstrated our commitment to the Santa Maria area and is within the parish boundaries, as is St. Joseph HS on Bradley and Foster Roads.
This facility serves as a permanent home for our retired confreres, and has also been made available to the parishes of the area, the high school, our parish elementary school, and a variety of other groups, including non-Catholic, who come here for days of reflection or meetings.
The Josephite Fathers Web Site
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