[2] Born in Le Vigan on August 30, 1810, Emmanuel d'Alzon received his initial formation in the major seminary of Montpellier (1832–1833) which he completed in Rome.

He launched numerous pastoral initiatives in the diocese of Nîmes under successive bishops : Claude Petit Benoit de Chaffoy (1822–1835), Jean-François-Marie Cart (1837–1855), Claude-Henri Plantier (1855–1875), and François-Nicolas Besson (1875–1878).

With his first disciples he undertook bold apostolic goals: the foreign missions (Australia, eastern Europe), education, the press, and pilgrimages.

In addition to their college at Nîmes they established Apostolic schools where poor students were educated for the priesthood without expense to themselves.

The Assumptionists actively promoted the conspiracy theory that unnamed Jews were destroying French institutions, in particular the Army and the Catholic church, and oppressing the people.

One of many examples of their unsourced anti-Semitic polemic can be taken from their widely-circulated daily newspaper, La Croix, for 2 February 1898: No proof of these assertions is given and no Jewish person or organisation is identified.

This overt hate campaign no doubt contributed to the subsequent laws which curtailed the activities of the Assumptionists in France.

In 1900 the congregation was suppressed within French territory, this action being based on the charge that they were accumulating a fund to be used in a royalist movement to overthrow the Republic.

"La Bonne Presse" was purchased at the time of the suppression by Paul Feron-Vrau, a wealthy manufacturer of Lisle, and all its publications were continued without any change.

In their journalistic work they were aided by the Oblate Sisters of the Assumption, an order established by d'Alzon to assist in their Oriental missions, but whose activities are not contained to that field.

Until the suppression they directed the women's section in the publishing rooms of the "Christian Press" as well as the hospitals, orphan asylums, and schools.

The Assumptionists organized prominent catholic sailors into a committee and were encouraged to equip two hospital ships to aid the fishermen.

On 11 November 1952 at the central prison of Sofia, Bulgaria three Assumptionist priests (Augustinians of the Assumption), Kamen Vitchev, Pavel Djidjov and Josaphat Chichov were executed by firing squad by the Communist regime.

This international congregation is present in nearly 30 countries throughout the world, with the most recent foundations being established in 2006 in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Togo.

Under his inspiration, she founded with four other women, a religious congregation, after having trained with the Benedictines of the Blessed Sacrament in Paris and with the Visitation Sisters of Mt.

were founded in May 1865 in Rochebelle du Vigan (Gard) by d'Alzon and Marie Correnson, known in religion as Mother Emmanuel-Marie de la Compassion (1842–1900), as the women's branch of the Augustinians of the Assumption.

were founded in Paris (Seine) in July 1865 by Etienne Pernet (1824–1899) and Antoinette Fage, known in the convent as Mother Marie de Jésus (1824–1883).

[citation needed] In a booklet, entitled, "Origins of the Religious Families of the Assumption," Pierre Touveneraud (1926–1979), former general archivist of the congregation, summarized in 1972 the common patrimony of the six original branches of the Assumption which, while fully respecting their particular vocations, their autonomous governing structures, and their apostolic works, bears witness to their common history strengthened by spiritual friendship, apostolic support, and fraternal collaboration.

[citation needed] There are other aspects as well which they share: the similarities of their rules of life, a missionary commitment, an insistence on certain human virtues (openness, simplicity, warmth), a balance of the three constitutive elements of religious life (prayer, community, and apostolate), emphasis on co-responsibility in governance, collaboration with the laity, and the importance of belonging to an international family.

These efforts have led to greater exchanges and shared programs: inter-novitiates, assemblies, get-togethers of young members of the Assumption Family, colloquia, annual meetings of the general councils of the congregations, joint foundations, collaboration on a provincial level, and the joint preparation of two magazines (Assomption et ses oeuvres and Itinéraires Augustiniens).

[citation needed] Assumptionist systematic theologian, George Tavard (1922–2007), a Frenchman living in the United States, places the emphasis on the deeply Trinitarian inspiration of d'Alzon's writings, articulated around themes and actions which champion the rights of God.