How You Can Help:
Donating Opportunities
Perpetual Mass Association

Our Missions:
Ghana | Kenya | Liberia
Tanzania | USA

Becoming a Missionary:
SMA Missionary Priest
SMA Lay Missionary

The Society of African Missions (SMA) was founded on December 8, 1856 in Lyon, France. The initials "SMA" stand for the name in Latin: Societas Missionum ad Afros. The Founder, Bishop Melchior de Marion Brésillac, was a French clergyman who had a strong commitment to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the peoples of Africa. Sadly, the early years of SMA were marked by tragedy. The first SMA missionaries, including Bishop Brésillac, arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone (West Africa) in the spring of 1859. All of them were struck by yellow fever and most died. Brésillac died on June 25, 1859 only weeks after arriving in Africa. He is interred in the SMA chapel at Lyon and is currently a candidate for canonization by the Catholic Church.

Despite the difficult beginnings, SMA survived and flourished. Today, SMA has locations around the world and more than 1000 priests, brothers, and laypeople serving throughout Africa. The international administrative headquarters of SMA is in Rome.

The American Province of SMA was established in 1941 and is headquartered in Tenafly, New Jersey. Missionaries of the American Province serve in the African countries of Liberia, Ghana, and Kenya. They also serve in the United States, primarily in the Archdioceses of Newark (New Jersey), Boston (Massachusetts), and Washington, D.C. as well as in locations throughout the country where there is a significant population of African heritage.

The Founder of SMA
About the American Province
A More Detailed History of SMA