Thus the Redemptorists kept up the custom of retreats in the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily during the second half of the eighteenth century. Aided by several priests and various religious orders, she succeeded in having the exercises performed by nearly 100,000 persons. Annual ecclesiastical retreats began as a general thing in France and other countries in 1815. Numerous promoters of these retreats came from the ranks of the secular clergy as well as from the regular orders. A large number of directors are annually engaged in giving retreats to the religious communities.
Several institutions perform the complete exercises of twenty to thirty days.
We may also mention retreats at the close of a course of study, established in the College of St. Acheul at Amiens in 1825, and which, spreading by degrees, led to the organization of retreats among the alumni, a custom that has become quite general. They have established houses in Australia, China, India, Ceylon, and Madagascar. Besides the Breton congregations already spoken of, new societies especially devoted to retreats for women have been formed, such as Notre Dame du Cenacle, and Marie Reparatrice. Retreats for laymen have spread greatly throughout the Catholic world during the last twenty-five years. In 1882 he gave himself to the task of instituting retreats for working-men, and it was not long before houses devoted to this purpose were founded all over Europe.