The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Eugène de Mazenod, a French priest later recognized as a Catholic saint. (Oblate means a person dedicated to God or God's service.) The congregation was given recognition by Pope Leo XII on February 17, 1826. , the congregation was composed of 3,631 priests and lay brothers usually living in community. Their traditional salutation is ("Praised be Jesus Christ"), to which the response is ("And Mary Immaculate"). Members use the post-nominal letters, "OMI". As part of its mission to evangelize the "abandoned poor", OMI are known for their mission among the Indigenous peoples of Canada, and their historic administration of at least 57 schools within the Canadian Indian residential school system. Those oblate schools have been associated with cases of both sexual abuse and missing and dead children. Foundation The "Society of Missionaries of Provence" was founded on January 25, 1816, in Aix-en-Provence when Eugene de Mazenod and four companions came together to preach, first with missions in the Provençal dialect, speaking the everyday language of the community. Born into French nobility in 1782, Eugene de Mazenod fled the French Revolution with his family in 1789. In 1798 in Naples, they were joined by his uncle, the future Bishop . Returning to France in 1802, he entered the Seminary of St. Sulpice and was ordained in 1811. The character of de Mazenod's experience during the French Revolution formed his society's goals. Initially established to renew the Roman Catholic Church in France, the society opposed Napoleon's view of the Church, and focused its mission on the masses, believed to have abandoned the Church. On 25 January 1816, Mazenod invited other priests to join him in his life of total oblation to God and to the most abandoned of Provence. Initially called "Missionaries of Provence," they dedicated themselves to evangelization through preaching parish missions in the poor villages, youth and prison ministry. In 1818 a second community was established at the Marian shrine of Notre Dame du Laus. This became the occasion for the missionaries to become a religious congregation, united through vows and the evangelical counsels. On February 17, 1826, Pope Leo XII granted approbation of pontifical right to the congregation of the "Missionary Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary" via papal brief. Charism Missionaries