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J.P. Sonnen is the man: I love the photos that he posts from Rome, with solid traditionalist commentary. 
On Monday this week he posted a great photo of a missioner of the Precious Blood, which you see here. Though we once met a sedevacantist at St. Michael’s in Scranton armed with a crucifix of similar proportions, I didn’t realize that such crucifix-cum-cassock combinations were still around! It’s wonderful to see. Sonnen’s photograph reminded me of some old photographs I had seen on this page of Jesuit missionaries in America from the 19th century. I first found the page about the Jesuit missionaries when looking for more information about Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J. after reading two excellent sermons by him here and here. Francis Cardinal George, OMI has a nice column about Fr. Damen’s work in the Chicago area here. Once you’ve read Cardinal George’s column, here is a page about the history of Holy Family parish in Chicago, founded by Fr. Damen. As you’ll also read in Cardinal George’s column, Fr. Damen laid the first foundations for what became Loyola University in Chicago. Ah, Fr. Damen would have his work cut out for him if he were around now! I’m afraid that many who are there today would not be happy to see him set up for a mission on campus.
Look at the crucifixes in these photographs:
The first is a photograph of Fr. Patrick O’Reilly, S.J. (1872 - 1958) and the second of Fr. Thomas Meagher, S.J. (1870 - 1936). Fr. Thomas Clancy, S.J. writes of them:
Fr. Patrick O’Reilly’s mission band efforts for the California and later the Oregon provinces led him to miners in the Yukon, prisoners in the state pen at Salem, Ore., and lepers on the island of Molokai. Jesuit historian Fr. Wilfred Schoenberg (Paths to the Northwest) describes Fr. O’Reilly and longtime partner Fr. Thomas Meagher, S.J.: “Meagher and O’Reilly made a great team when they preached a mission. Meagher was a holy terror in the pulpit but in the confessional he was as gentle as a dove. O’Reilly, on the other hand, preached sweetness and light. … The timid lined up outside his confessional, expecting a soft, easy time of it. Many found, instead, an unpleasant surprise.”
We need missionaries like these men in our parishes today. It’s not just a question of sending missionaries to the south Pacific, but perhaps even more today, of sending missionaries into the parishes. Think of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori and St. Philip Neri - both directed their zeal for souls, their zeal to go aboard to win converts, in the direction of the local churches, where conversion was also needed.
May all these holy missionaries intercede for the conversion of sinners, schismatics, heretics, and infidels today!
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
Redemptorists are given two crucifixes during their formation. One is worn as part of the habit and is usually a smaller version of the larger. It is worn on a cord about the neck and secured in a pocket inside the front of the habit. It is given by the provincial superior at the profession of first vows. The second crucifix is the Missioner’s Cross which is given in a ceremony upon the completion of studies. It is worn in the manner shown in the pictures above by the Redemptorist engaged in “extraordinary” preaching, that is preaching missions, novenas, retreats, etc. The Missioner’s Cross is used to impart the Apostolic Blessing and Plenary Indulgence at the end of any of these spiritual exercises.