DEHON, JEAN-LÉON. – Priest and founder, born at La Chapelle (Soissons) on 14 March 1843, died at Brussels on 12 August 1925. In 1869 he was among the stenographers of the Vatican Council, and later, in his advanced theological studies at the Gregorian, he was a fellow student of the future Benedict XV. Returning to his homeland, he exercised parochial ministry at Saint-Quentin, founding a series of highly fruitful social works.
To perpetuate these forms of modern apostolate he founded a congregation of Oblates of the Sacred Heart (1878), which, after various vicissitudes, was finally established under the name of the Congregation of Priests of the Sacred Heart (1883). The institute spread notably in Europe, America, and the missions of the Belgian Congo and French Cameroon. Of great interest is Dehon’s activity in promoting social action in accordance with the encyclical *Rerum novarum*; a book of his, *Catechism of Social Doctrine*, widely circulated in the Catholic world, corresponds to this aim. Dehon also initiated the construction, in Rome, of the international temple of Christ the King on the ancient Piazza d’Armi.