The family was founded by Thomas A. Judge, C.M. Born August 23, 1868 in Boston, Fr. Judge was concerned about Baptized Catholics who were being lost to the faith. After several years on the Vincentian mission band preaching in many parishes, he came to the conviction that every Catholic is called to be a missionary. He labored from then on to develop a missionary minded, zealous, Catholic laity.
In 1890, Fr. Judge enters St. Vincent’s Preparatory Seminary in Germantown, Philadelphia, PA.
1899 – Fr. Judge is ordained to the Vincentian Order at St. Charles Seminary, Philadelphia.
1909 – Six women respond to Fr. Judge’s appeal for lay apostles to share in the mission and ministry of the Church. They were later to become known as the Cenacle Lay Apostolate.
1910-1915 – Fr. Judge is an active member of the Vincentian Mission Band. He established lay apostolate groups in major cities and small towns from Maine to West Virginia.
1911 – The first Missionary Cenacle is opened in Baltimore to care for homeless and unemployed women and to work among Italian immigrants.
1915 – Fr. Judge is assigned to a Vincentian mission in Opelika, Alabama. A number of lay volunteers follow Fr. Judge and give their lives completely to the Missionary Cenacle.
1918 – The Cenacle in Alabama become incorporated under the title of “Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity” consisting mainly of Catholic ladies.
1919 – Louise Margaret Keasey is appointed by Fr. Judge to be the first General Custodian of the newsister’s community and receives the name Mother Mary Boniface.
1920 – Archbishop John Bonzano gives his approval to the newly formed religious communities and to the Cenacle Lay Apostolate, later to become known as the Missionary Cenacle Family.
