PETIT, ADOLPHE. - Jesuit, b. at Gand on 22 May 1822, d. at Drongen (Tronchiennes) on 20 May 1914.
Having entered the Society of Jesus (1842), he was appointed instructor of the Third Probation at Drongen in 1855, was rector (1870-75), then spiritual father of the same community until his death. Of extraordinary activity, he founded the work of Workers’ Retreats and Spiritual Exercises for laypeople; the work «Ouvroir du Sacré-Cœur» to assist the Congo Missions; «Le Calvaire», a pious association of widows, who were to sanctify themselves through the care of poor sick women afflicted with cancer and unable to find a place in other hospitals; he was cofounder of the Priestly Union for the clergy.
Endowed with special gifts of prayer and union with God, he became the confessor and spiritual director of the highest ecclesiastical, political, and civil personages. Among his spiritual sons was also Card. MERCIER, DÉSIRÉ (v.), archbishop of Malines. In 1931 the informative proceedings concerning his holiness were begun, and in 1937 the apostolic proceedings.
Among his printed works, the following meditations and instructions are famous: Sacerdotes rite institutus piis exercitationibus menstruae recollectionis, 5 vols. (Bruges 1888, subsequently reprinted many times); Templum spirituale (I, ibid. 1902; II, ibid. 1907); Mon Navire. Souvenir de mes retraites (for religious women; ibid. 1912; Italian trans., Turin 1930).