Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales

This special apostolate in turn gave rise to a community of preachers gathered around Mermier.

Nearly two centuries after de Sales's death, Joseph Rey, his successor in the See of Annecy, broached the subject of such a society to Peter Mermier, who had been considering the same idea.

The society was not to be a mere association of priests, but a new religious congregation, bound by simple vows.

In 1845 his offer was accepted by Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and the first missionaries of St. Francis de Sales set out for India.

In Visakhapatnam the first vicar apostolic was Neyret (1850); he was succeeded by Tissot, first bishop of the diocese.

Since the persecution of 1903, the congregation has been obliged to leave Savoy for England, where the juvenate, the novitiate, and the house of studies are successfully carried on.

An autonomous American Mission in the US was founded in 1990 and later raised to the status of a Region under the Superior General on 3 July 2007.

The superiors-general during the early years of the society, after Peter Mermier, were Fathers Gaiddon, Clavel, Tissot, Gojon, and Bouvard.