The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, popularly known as the Redemptorists, had been founded in Naples in 1732 by St. Alphonsus Liguori, and had grown only slowly during its founder's lifetime. St. Clement Hofbauer established the Congregation north of the Alps. Though he left only two foundations, one of which was in an unstable condition, when he died in March 1820, he had formed a group of men destined to bring the transalpine Redemptorists to new heights. Chiefly instrumental in the growth of the Redemptorists after that was Ven. Joseph Passerat, who ruled the Congregation from 1820 to 1848. Passerat had dispatched the first Redemptorist missionaries to America in 1832. They had secured their first foundation in Pittsburgh in April 1839, taking over St. Philomena's Church where the trustees had been at loggerheads with the pastor for some time. Many of their early foundations in America came under similar circumstances, as bishops were happy to relieve themselves of the problems caused by vexatious trustees by letting the Redemptorists have the churches. When Neumann joined them, they had four foundations: St. Philomena's in Pittsburgh, St. John's in Baltimore, St. Joseph's in Rochester, and St. Alphonsus' in Norwalk, Ohio.