ROUGIER, FÉLIX. - Priest, founder of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit (v.), b. at Meilhaud on 17 Dec. 1859, d. at Mexico on 10 Jan. 1938.
At the age of 18 he entered the Marist Fathers at Ste-Foy and on 24 Sept. 1887 was ordained priest at Lyons. In 1885 he began to found several colleges in Colombia and later in Mexico, where he found the complex of the Works of the Cross already under way. Transferred to Barcelona, he spent ten years there devoted to teaching, but the Mexican exile pressed his case with Bl. Pius X and obtained R.’s return. On 25 Dec. 1918 he began his Institute and entered it in 1930 with the permission of the Holy See. In contrast with the times, he intended to restore in himself and his sons the monastic spirit and even the penances of the ancients, which have now become second nature in the Institute.