SAINT JOHN FRANCIS REGIS. - Jesuit, b. 11 Jan. 1597 at Fontcouverte (Aude). He studied under the Jesuits at Béziers and entered the Order on 18 Dec. 1616 at Toulouse. From 1632 he worked as a missionary in Languedoc, around Montpellier, in Vivarais, Forez and Velay, full of zeal for souls. In winter he devoted himself to apostolate in the most remote parts of the countryside and mountains, in summer in the cities, founding social works for the redemption of fallen women, for the relief of the poor, and for the preservation and strengthening of the faith, especially through confraternities of the Most Blessed Sacrament. He died in the midst of his labors, half frozen by snow, in the village of Lalouvesc (Ardèche), on 31 Dec. 1640. He was beatified in 1716 and canonized by Clement XII in 1737. His feast is on 16 June.
During the anti-Jesuit campaign in France (1712), the Jansenists spread the rumor that the Saint had been dismissed from the Order before his death. The matter was immediately investigated by order of a papal commission (1712) and again later (1879), and proved to be a pure invention. The great devotion of the faithful to St. John Francis Regis gave rise to the “Société de St. F. R.” founded in Paris (19 March 1826) with the aim of promoting the legitimation of illicit and invalid unions (later spreading to Germany, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Italy), and to the union of the “Fratelli di s. F. R.” at Roche Arnaud (Le Puy) for the education of orphans and their introduction to work. A Congregation of “Suore di s. F. R.” was also established at Lalouvesc by Fr. Therme in 1830 to care for the sick.