Missionaries of the Precious Blood

Our current Pastor, Fr. Benjamin Berinti, C.PP.S., is a member of the religious congregation Missionaries of the Most Precious Blood, Cincinnati Province.  

Missionaries of the Precious Blood is an international congregation serving in 19 countries around the world and is composed of priests and brothers who share a commitment to reach out to those who are lost or forsaken. They are encouraged to dream new dreams, following God’s call in the tradition of their founder St. Gaspar del Bufalo to serve the people of God in ways that will invigorate God’s Church. Our priests and brothers live as a family and find in each other the support and friendship that sustains them in their ministries.

Precious Blood priests take great joy in celebrating the sacraments and in serving God’s people in a variety of ministries which include, but are not limited to: pastors, preachers, teachers, reconcilers, authors, retreat leaders, and chaplains.

Precious Blood brothers serve the people of God as teachers, preachers, artists, chaplains, vocation ministers, musicians and sacristans, to name a few. They serve in parishes, schools, and hospitals or wherever God calls them.

Missionaries of the Precious Blood also share their spirituality and community life with lay associates called Companions.  Companions are committed to understanding the history, mission and spirituality of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, and are united with the Missionaries in their ministries and prayer life.  Today, there are nearly 500 Companions in the Cincinnati and Kansas City Provinces.

No matter where and how they serve, Precious Blood priests and brothers are missionaries. They also live as one with the people they serve. “We’re just folks,” said our Moderator General, Fr. Bill Nordenbrock, C.PP.S. “There’s a humanness to us. Our becoming priests or brothers does not remove us from the world. We have a very ordinary way of being present to the people.”

For more information about St. Gaspar and the Missionaries of the Most Precious Blood http://cpps-preciousblood.org  

OUR FOUNDER, ST. GASPAR DEL BUFALO

St. Gaspar del Bufalo was born on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1786, in Rome. His parents named him after the Magi who visited the Christ child: Gaspar Melchior Balthazar del Bufalo. It was an apt name for a man who would spend his life on a quest to fulfill the will of God.

On August 15, 1815, St. Gaspar founded the Congregation of the Most Precious Blood (C.PP.S.) in Giano, Italy. It was a very small congregation, with only four members (including St. Gaspar). They began to preach in towns throughout central Italy. As they preached mission after mission, igniting the fire of faith in God’s people, they began to draw more members to their new Congregation.

Gaspar died on December 28, 1837, in Rome, where he spent the previous summer ministering to those affected by an epidemic of cholera. The physician who examined him said Gaspar died a “victim of charity,” worn out by his ministry to others.

St. Gaspar was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1954. His work continues through his Missionaries around the world. St. Gaspar never turned back. Weakened by ailments, called a fanatic or fool by people who should have supported him, imprisoned and impoverished, and challenged at every turn, his answer to God’s call was always yes. His followers continue to turn to him for inspiration, as they fulfill the wish he once expressed: “I wish that I could have a thousand tongues, to endear every heart to the Precious Blood of Jesus.”