From the Archives Department of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool, February 2017.

In the Treasury located in the Crypt of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool there is among the exhibits one of particular interest to members of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament: a Pectoral Cross which belonged to Archbishop Marie-Dominique-August Sibour of Paris.

It was Archbishop Sibour who, on 13^th May 1856, granted to our holy Founder, Saint Peter Julian Eymard, permission to found in the Archdiocese of Paris a new Religious Institute for men which became known as the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament.

During the interview on that historic day Fr. Eymard forgot to ask the Archbishop his personal question if he ought to found this new Institute as he was, i.e. a priest of the Society of Mary (Marist), or ought he to seek a dispensation from his vows as a Religious to make the new Foundation. So, the following day, 14^th May 1856, Fr. Eymard returned to see Archbishop Sibour who advised him to seek a dispensation from his vows. Fr. Eymard was dispensed from his vows as a Marist on 22^nd May 1856.

On 2^hd March 1859 Fr. Eymard pronounced his religious vows in the newly founded Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament.