RUTTEN, JOSEPH. - Missionary, b. at Clermont (Liège) on 15 Oct. 1874, d. at Peu (France) on 18 March 1950, just after returning from China.
He entered the Congregation of Scheut in 1894. Ordained a priest, he set out on 15 Sept. 1901 for the apostolic vicariate of Siwan-tze, in central Mongolia. Over three years he crossed the region in every direction, preparing its first geographical map. He founded the school of Nanhao-chan, modernizing its teaching. Elected superior general in 1920, he governed the Congregation for 10 years. In 1920 he founded the house of studies in Beijing, so that the young missionaries arriving there might apply themselves to the study of the Chinese language, an initiative later followed by other Orders and Congregations; in 1921 the regional Seminary of Tatung (the first in China), which in 25 years provided the mission with more than 200 native priests; the same year the central hospital of Mongolia at Kwei-Sui (province of Sui-Yuan), with schools for male and female nurses; and furthermore new houses of his congregation in Belgium and in Holland.
On his return to Mongolia after the end of his generalate (1930), with the advice and help of Pius XI, he went to Poland to study exanthematous typhus, under Prof. Rudweigl at Lvov; he sent young Chinese doctors to Louvain for the same purpose; he then founded, at the Catholic University of Beijing, a laboratory to prepare vaccines and sera on the spot, thereby saving the young missionaries from the terrible disease. A member of the Synodal Commission for seminaries and hygiene, he spent the last years of his life in the study of the interdialectal romanization of the Chinese language.