The Society for the Propagation of the Faith was founded in Lyons, France, in 1822 by a young French laywoman, Pauline Jaricot. Inspired by stories she heard about missionary work in China, she felt called by the Lord to help the Catholic Church's worldwide missionary work. Pauline herself never traveled to the Missions, which, during her lifetime, consisted of the Missions in China — and young dioceses in the United States. Pauline gathered friends and workers in a family silk mill into "circles of ten," asking each person to pray daily for the Missions and sacrifice a penny-a-week (at that time, quite a large sacrifice!). From this idea emerged the Propagation of the Faith.
Today the General Fund of the Propagation of the Faith, which gathers gifts from Catholics all over the world — a concept that originated with Pauline Jaricot and her desire to help all the world's missions — is the basic means of support for the Catholic Church's worldwide Missions.
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