The Congregation of the Most Precious Blood was founded in the beginning of the [19th] century by Ven. Casper del Bufalo, a priest of Rome and a Canon at St. Peter’s, for the purpose of spreading the devotion of the Most Precious Blood and of the giving of missions. Upon an invitation of the Most Rev. John B. Purcell, D. D., Archbishop of Cincinnati, through his Vicar General Henni, the saintly Rev. Francis Salesius Brunner with several companions: Revs. A. Meyer, M. J. Wittmer, M. Probst, J. Ringele, P. A. Capeder, J. Van den Broek, and J. B. Jacomet, embarked for America and arrived in Cincinnati on January 1, 1844. The Archbishop assigned to them the church of St. Alphonse at Norwalk, Huron county, Ohio. From here they were to extend their administrations and missionary labors over the entire northwestern portion of the diocese of Cincinnati. The band of priests set out for the wilderness and began their work, visiting the settlers dispersed through this region, and building churches where-ever they found a number of the faithful sufficient to form the nucleus of a parish.
From: Alerding, Herman Joseph. The Diocese of Fort Wayne, 1857-September 1907. Fort Wayne: Archer Print. Co,, 1907.