An excerpt from the Catholic Encyclopedia: Everywhere the saint made abundant conversions, and was very often obliged both in cities and country districts to preach in the open, as the churches could not contain the thousands who came to listen. He founded many pious societies and confraternities, and exerted himself especially to spread the devotion of the Stations of the Cross -- the propagation of which he greatly furthered with the assistance of his brethren -- the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the perpetual adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and devotion to the Immaculate Conception . One of his most ardent desires was to see the last-named defined as a dogma of faith by the Holy See.