PETIT, ADOLPHE. - Jesuit, b. at Ghent on 22 May 1822, d. at Drongen (Tronchiennes) on 20 May 1914.

Having entered the Society of Jesus (1842), in 1855 he received the office of instructor of the Third Probation at Drongen, was rector (1870-75), then spiritual father of the same community until his death. Of extraordinary industriousness, he founded the work of the Workers' Retreats and of the Spiritual Exercises for laypeople; the work "Ouvroir du Sacré-Cœur" to assist the Missions of the Congo; "Le Calvaire," a pious sodality of widows, who were to sanctify themselves through the care of poor sick women stricken with cancer and who found no place in other hospitals; he was a co-founder of the Priestly Union for the clergy.

Endowed with special gifts of prayer and of union with God, he became the confessor and spiritual director of the highest ecclesiastical, political and civil personalities. Among his spiritual sons was also Cardinal Mercier (v.), archbishop of Malines. In 1931 the informative processes on his holiness were begun, and in 1937 the apostolic ones.

Among his printed works, the meditations and instructions are celebrated: Sacerdotes rite institutus piis exercitationibus menstruae recollectionis, 5 vols. (Bruges 1888, which then had many reprintings); Templum spirituale (I, ibid. 1902; II, ibid. 1907); Mon Navire. Souvenir de mes retraites (for religious women; ibid. 1912; Italian trans., Turin 1930).

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: E. Lavoille, Un semeur de joie, A. P. (1882-1914), 2nd ed., Brussels 1949 (Italian trans. Turin 1937); H. Davignon, La simple histoire du bon père P. S. J., Paris 1937; G. Guitton, Un charmeur, Le père P., ibid. 1950; S. Congregazione dei Riti, Positio super virtutibus, Rome 1948; Nova positio super virtutibus, ibid. 1950.

Arnaldo M. Lanz

@incollection{ec9_petit_adolphe, author = {Lanz, Arnaldo Maria}, title = {Petit, adolphe}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1285}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/petit-adolphe} }

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Petit, Adolphe

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