GRÉA, MARIE-ETIENNE-ADRIEN. - Founder of the Canons Regular of the Immaculate Conception, b. at Lons-le-Saunier (Jura) on 18 February 1828, d. at Rotalier (Jura) on 23 February 1917.
A graduate of the Ecole des Chartes, he embraced an ecclesiastical career; and, seized by the generous ideal of restoring the holiness of the clergy and religious practices in the parishes, he conceived the establishment of a Congregation of Canons Regular who would combine the direct apostolate of souls with the obligations of monastic common life. The rules, initially approved (1887), were subsequently revised and modified into new constitutions in 1907, which altered the essential points of the original statute. The painful trial was borne in a Christian spirit and the foundation continued; but from that moment G., having vainly attempted to resume with a few companions the religious life he had conceived, withdrew to Rotalier.