Their appearance at the funeral recently of the Papal Nuncio, Dr Luciano Storero, was for many the first time they became aware of the Legionaries of Christ. But they have been in Ireland since 1960.
With their clean-cut, starched appearance they looked like a group of young Latter Day Saints but, while contemporary sanctity may be their aspiration, it is most definitely of the Catholic, not the Mormon, kind.
Their novitiate is at Leopardstown Road, Foxrock, in Dublin where there are five priests, five professed religious, and 15 novices. Many of the novices are from other countries, where there is an "overflow" of numbers in local novitiates.
They have more than 2,500 members worldwide, 450 of whom are priests. There are more than 50 Irish priests among the Legionaries. All remaining members are studying for the priesthood. They have houses in 20 countries, mostly in North and South America and Europe, and members come from 38 countries on all five continents. Thirty five Legionaries are to be ordained on January 2nd in Rome, among them Dubliner Seamus McCabe.
In Ireland they are mostly involved in retreat and youth work, besides being responsible for a Catholic boys' school for overseas students who spend a year or two learning English while following the regular school curriculum. They also serve as chaplains to a girls' and a boys' school.
The Legion was founded in Mexico City by Father Marcial Maciel in 1941. According to Father Brian Wilson of the novitiate in Dublin, Mexico "is where our work is more developed. It is more representative of the way we would like to serve the church in each country. There, besides extensive youth work and retreat work in schools and universities, we engage in various new forms of evangelisation and catechesis, and a lot of mission work, and work to promote social advancement among the underprivileged sectors of society.
"A lot of our Irish priests are working in Mexico, including quite a few in mission work among the Mayan people of the Quintana Roo province. There are certain interesting characteristics of our work there, such as a strong self-help ethos promoted among the poor and the way it has been possible to facilitate a fascinatingly strong and active presence of women in all kinds of areas of the life of the church and of society."
In the coming years he expects they will be able to be of more assistance to the church in Ireland by getting involved in work similar to their role in other countries, he said.
"Since we are a young congregation, our spirituality is pretty much a `Vatican II' type of spirituality, very Christ-centred, with strong ecclesial and Marian dimensions. We just try to live all our life in a very personal and real relationship with Christ, ready to do our best for him. Mary is for us the great model of what it is to be a follower of Christ, and of course a mother who cares for us - that feminine presence that every man needs. "
A Legionary's formation is not for the fainthearted. Its website (legionofchrist.com) says "he has to form within himself a sturdy, disciplined spirit, a firm and tenacious will; he is to be austere, organised, and constant. He strives to be pleasant, communicative, capable of dealing with all kinds of people, educated, gentlemanly, sincere, loyal, and grateful".
As to why the Legionaries had such a visible presence at Dr Storero's funeral, Father Wilson explained: "He visited us every year here in Ireland - most recently just before he fell ill. The novices visited him to say goodbye before he was due to leave Ireland, less than two weeks before he died as it turned out."