Dear friends,

I am pleased to welcome you to the website of the Assumptionists in the United States, confident that it will serve to complement our Congregational website (assumptio.org). It is my hope that it will provide you with helpful information regarding the people, places and events in the life and ministry of the Assumptionists in the United States in our work for God's Kingdom.·I extend a particular welcome to those who are visiting us for the first time. We upload new content each week on the home page, so we invite you to return often or to sign up for our e-newsletter to receive periodic updates in your inbox.

Yours in the Assumption,

Dennis M. Gallagher, A.A.
Provincial Superior of the North American Province

Beginning January 2010, Catholic Digest - which is sponsored by and is a ministry of the Assumptionists -  has launched a series of articles highlighting the spirituality and charism of various religious congregations.  The articles are meant to invite readers to better understand religious life and to find ways to prayerfully connect with particular communities.

The February 2011 edition highlights the Assumptionists and was authored by Fr. Richard Lamoureux, A.A., Superior General of the Assumptionists:

"When I was teaching at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, I decided it would be good to tell my students what the Assumptionists were all about. To organize the gathering, I enlisted the help of a senior with whom I had worked on a number of projects, but after a week or two of serious effort, he came to tell me that he was having a hard time stirring up interest. We did the best we could (even luring participants with the offer of pizza) and succeeded in bringing together 20 or so young men and women. I launched into my presentation with a good deal of enthusiasm, but I sensed I wasn’t connecting. Finally, one student courageously spoke up."

Download the pdf file to read more.

In 1995, the Augustinians of the Assumption, sponsors of Assumption College, celebrated the 100th anniversary of the establishment of their first community in the United States. Here, in brief, is the story of our presence in America.

The story began in France in the year 1850, when Venerable Emmanuel d'Alzon founded the Assumptionists to work for the coming of the reign of Jesus Christ in human hearts, in society and in the world, and to give a doctrinal, ecumenical and social dimension to all their works. D'Alzon's broad vision would take Assumptionists to many countries throughout the world both in his lifetime and after. In 1889, Fr. François Picard, the successor of Emmanuel d'Alzon, wrote the following from France: "in our country of revolution, a house in South America is not to be disdained, and a foundation in the United States would be desirable."

November 11, 1952, at 11:30 p.m., in the central prison of Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, three Bulgarian Assumptionists, Fathers Kamen Vitchev, Pavel Djidjov and Josaphat Chichkov, were shot by a firing squad. At the same time, a Bulgarian bishop, a Passionist, Eugene Bossilkov, was also shot. All four had been condemned to death on October 3, during a trumped-up trial, accused of spying for the Vatican, plotting an uprising and being agents of capitalism.