LAC, STANISLAS du. — Jesuit, organizer of social works, b. in Paris on 21 Nov. 1835, d. there on 30 Aug. 1909. He was first rector of the College of Le Mans (1870–71), where during the Franco-Prussian War he established a field hospital through which 22,000 soldiers passed, also to their spiritual benefit; then
of the School of S. Genoveffa in Paris (1871–81), where over ten years he directed the preparation, crowned with splendid success, of 1,371 students for the examinations for the military academy of St-Cyr, the École Polytechnique, and the École centrale.
After the religious Orders were expelled from France, he directed the French College of St. Mary's near Canterbury for 9 years (1881–90). He subsequently went to Paris, where he devoted himself to spiritual ministries, but above all to the providential creation of the «Syndacat de l'Aiguille», a work of protection for women workers and apprentices (milliners, clerks, seamstresses), which spread throughout France. In Paris alone it had more than 2,000 members, 200 patronesses, and 2 large houses for accommodating young women seeking work and lodging.
He wrote: France (Paris 1888), a collection of reminiscences for former students of St. Mary's College, and Jésuites (ibid. 1901), in defense of the Order against the calumnies disseminated everywhere.