Founded under the title Society of Catholic Instruction by Father John Baptist Jordan at Rome in 1881; first papal approbation in 1905; final approbation in 1911. The rules and constitutions, based largely on those of the Society of Jesus, add to the usual three vows a fourth of apostolic mission work. The society's aim is to spread God's kingdom on earth, by means of parish and social work and the advancement of Catholic literature, which they issue in large quantities. The congregation has been assigned a new mission field in the province of Fu-kien, China, to replace the Prefecture Apostolic of Assam, India, transferred after World War I to the Salesians. The mother-house is in Rome; the other houses are in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Rumania, Switzerland, Belgium, England, the United States, Colombia, and Brazil.