As their main role is the education of those preparing to become priests, Sulpicians place great emphasis on the academic and spiritual formation of their own members, who commit themselves to undergoing lifelong development in these areas.

The Society of Priests of Saint Sulpice was founded in France in 1641 by Father Jean-Jacques Olier (1608–1657), an exemplar of the French School of Spirituality.

Jean-Jacques Olier attempted to control diverse social groups by having laymen of the community give reports on family life, poverty, and disorder.

The Sulpicians were very strict in regards to women and sexuality to the extent that they were eventually banned from the seminary unless it was for short visits in the external area with appropriate attire.

[3] In the 18th century they attracted the sons of the nobility, as well as candidates from the common class, and produced a large number of the French bishops.

[6] The Sulpicians played a major role in the founding of the Canadian city of Montreal, where they engaged in missionary activities, trained priests and constructed the Saint-Sulpice Seminary.

The Société Notre-Dame de Montréal, of which Jean-Jacques Olier was an active founder, was granted the land of Montreal from the Company of One Hundred Associates, which owned New France, with the aim of converting the indigenous population and providing schools and hospitals for both them and the colonists.

The Jesuits served as missionaries for the small colony until 1657 when Olier sent four priests from the Saint-Sulpice seminary in Paris to form the first parish.

The Sulpicians served as missionaries, judges, explorers, schoolteachers, social workers, supervisors of convents, almsmen, canal builders, urban planners, colonization agents, and entrepreneurs.

Female employees posed a particular problem since although a cheap source of labour, their presence in a male religious community was problematic.

In the case of M. Vachon de Belmont, who was responsible for the mission of La Montagne, sixth superior of the Montreal Sulpicians, the master designer of the fort and Sulpicians' residential château, and who was independently wealthy, was very well educated and had trained as draughtsman and architect, M. Belmont had a more than passing interest in military strategy and architecture.

In 1676 the mission of La Montagne was opened on the site of the present Séminaire de Montréal, where M. Belmont built a fort (1685).

According to Pierre-Auguste Fournet, the Sulpicians of Montreal would have died out had not the British Government opened Canada to the priests persecuted during the French Revolution.

[5] After lengthy negotiations, in 1840 the British Crown recognized the possessions of the Sulpicians, the status of which had been ambiguous since the Conquest, while also providing for the gradual termination of the seigneurial regime.

This enabled the Sulpicians to keep their holdings and continue their work, while allowing landowners who so desired to make a single final payment (commutation) and be relieved of all future seigneurial dues.

[16] A large part of Pointe-Saint-Charles was occupied by the Sulpicians' Saint-Gabriel Farm established in 1659 and named after the first superior, Gabriel de Queylus.

[16][17] At the request of Bishop Ignace Bourget, in 1840 the Sulpicians took over the diocesan school of theology, creating the famous Grand Séminaire de Montréal.

[9] In 2006, the Society of St. Sulpice of Montreal created Univers culturel de Saint-Sulpice, a non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure the preservation, accessibility and outreach of the archives, movable heritage assets and old and rare books of their community.

In 1684 Robert de la Salle headed an ill-fated expedition from France to what is now Texas, taking with him three priests, all Sulpicians.

His missionary zeal unslaked, he soon found a vessel to transfer him to the Sulpician enterprise in Montreal, which was quite successful and has endured down to the present day.

They were Francis Charles Nagot, Anthony Gamier, Michael Levadoux, and John Tessier, who had fled the French Revolution.

A decade later, Dubourg was instrumental in the transfer from New York City of the widow and recent convert Elizabeth Seton, who had been unsuccessful in her efforts to run a school, in part to care for her family.

With his encouragement, she and other women drawn to the vision of caring for the poor in a religious way of life came to found the first American congregation of Sisters in 1809.

Among the most well-known was Scripture scholar Raymond E. Brown, S.S.. Blesseds Servants of God The 2012 Annuario Pontificio gave 293 as the number of priest members as of 31 December 2010.