Overseas Missions

In the nineteenth century, the number of overseas missions conducted by British and Irish Catholics was very small but had considerable significance for the rising social and civic status of Catholicism in Britain and Ireland. This chapter examines the context for the emergence of overseas missions, the major religious organizations who contributed to the movement, and its imperial and devotional strands. It notes the impact of overseas missions on indigenous people as well as the contribution to education, social welfare, and internationalization beyond Britain. It suggests some directions for further research on the beginnings of the overseas Catholic missionary movement in Britain and Ireland.