RAUZAN, JEAN-BAPTISTE. - Founder of the Congregation of the Priests of Mercy, born at Bordeaux on 5 Dec. 1757, died at Paris on 5 Sept. 1847.
He first taught theology and sacred eloquence at the seminary of his native city; then, having been appointed vicar general of the diocese, he promoted a vigorous movement to save the faith among the French people. For this reason he was invited by Cardinal Archbishop Flesh to Lyons, where in 1808 R. gathered around himself a good number of zealous priests, forming them into the Association of Missionaries of France. The fruit of their preaching in the diocese of Troyes won them the esteem and assistance of the government; but the conflict between Napoleon I and Pius VII compelled the Association to dissolve. It resumed in 1814, when R. recalled his first collaborators, to whom new recruits were added, and missions were preached in the principal French cities, where the Works of S. Geneviève and the Association of the Ladies of Providence were founded. At this time R. founded the Congregation of the Sisters of S. Clotilde for the education of girls. In 1830, when the missionaries were dispersed by the revolution, R. came to Rome and, encouraged and authorized by Gregory XVI, founded the new Congregation of the Priests of Mercy, which received the brief of approval, together with its Constitutions, on 18 Feb.
1834, and that of affiliation with the Congregation of Propaganda on 15 March of the same year. The founder was able to see his institution introduced also into several dioceses of the United States.