St. Jean Baptiste is a Roman Catholic Parish originally founded in 1882 as the French Canadian parish in New York City. The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, an international Order founded in France in 1856, assumed administration of the parish in 1900 and continues its ministry today in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council.
The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament is a religious Order of brothers, priests, deacons and lay associates founded by Saint Peter Julian Eymard in Paris in 1856.
The Order’s Mission is defined in its Rule of Life:
Following in the footsteps of Father Eymard, our mission is to respond to the hungers of the human family with the riches of God’s love manifested in the Eucharist.
Drawing life from the bread given for the life of the world, we welcome the Lord Jesus in His Eucharistic presence by a prolonged prayer of adoration and contemplation and the celebration of the Eucharist.
Formed by the sacrament of the New Covenant, which frees us from the domination of Sin, we commit ourselves to building up the Body of Christ.
By our life and activities we share in the mission of the Church, so that the Eucharist may be celebrated in truth, that the faithful may grow in their communion with the Lord through Eucharistic adoration in the setting of exposition, that they may commit themselves to the renewal of their Christian Communities and collaborate in liberating individuals and society from the forces of evil.
United in the Spirit with those who are poor and weak, we oppose everything which degrades human dignity and we proclaim a more just world as we await the coming of the Lord.