DEHON, JEAN-LÉON. - Priest and founder, b. at La Chapelle (Soissons) on 14 March 1843, d. at Bruxelles, 12 Aug. 1925. In 1869 he was among the stenographers of the Vatican Council and later, in advanced theological studies, was a fellow student at the Gregorian of the future Benedetto XV. Having returned to his homeland, he exercised the parish ministry at St-Quintin, founding a series of highly fruitful social works.
In order to perpetuate these forms of modern apostolate, he founded a congregation of Oblates of the S. Cuore (1878), which subsequently, after various vicissitudes, was definitively established under the name of the Congregazione dei Sacerdoti del S. Cuore (1883). The institute spread considerably in Europe, America, and the missions of the Belgian Congo and French Camerum. Particularly noteworthy was D.'s activity in promoting social action in accordance with the encyclical Rerum novarum; one of his books, Catechismo sociale, widely disseminated in the Catholic world, corresponded to this purpose. D. was responsible for the initiative of constructing in Rome the international church of Christ the King on the former piazza d'Armi.
BBL.: A. Du Camp, Le p. D. et son oeuvre, Paris 1936; A. Prelos, L'oeuvre sociale du chanoine D., ibid. 1936. Egilberto Martire