The congregation, the first to be established after the French Revolution, spread rapidly. In 1825, Father Coudrin was asked to send missionaries to Oceania, hitherto without Catholic priests. They began their work in Hawaii in 1827. Since then the congregation has spread to all parts of the world.
The purpose of this community is to practice and propagate devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and to make reparation to these two Hearts by perpetual adoration of the most Blessed Sacrament. The members endeavor to imitate in their own lives the four stages of our Lord's life: His childhood by education; His hidden life by adoration; His public life by preaching; and his crucified life by the practice of penance and mortification.
The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts is characterized by the spirit of a true family: charity, simplicity, and the spirit of sacrifice. Relatively small in numbers, its history one of trials and tribulations, it strikingly exemplifies the words of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary: "My reign will be established in the midst of contradictions and only by weak and despised subjects . . ."
This then is the congregation to which Father Mateo belongs and which has stamped its spirit so deeply upon him. Father Coudrin, through his followers, wanted to set the whole world on fire with love for the Sacred Hearts. Father Mateo didn't succeed in doing just that, yet he certainly has set many big fires all over the world, and some of them are still blazing.
But since "charity begins at home," Father Mateo began by lighting a bonfire right in Valparaiso. Realizing the need of strengthening the faith and knowledge of both the the upper and lower classes, he instituted a course of law for the former and established a social center for the latter. In 1900 the social center of Santiago laid down the following directives: Make the royalty of Jesus Christ known and loved; make reparation for publish offenses against Him; bring Jesus the Redeemer in contact with the entire family - father, mother, and children. In this program we recognize the beginnings of the Enthronement crusade.
With the help of a wealthy benefactress, a Mrs. Edwards, the young priest
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