RUTTEN, JOSEPH. - Missionary, b. at Clermont (Liège) on 15 Oct. 1874, d. at Peu (France) on 18 March 1950, shortly after returning from China.
He entered the Congregation of Scheut in 1894. Ordained a priest, he left on 15 Sept. 1901 for the apostolic vicariate of Siwan-tze, Central Mongolia. For three years he traversed the region in every direction, preparing its first geographical map. He founded the school of Nanhao-chan, modernizing its teaching methods. Elected superior general in
1920, he governed the Congregation for 10 years. In 1920 he founded the house of studies in Peking, so that newly arrived young missionaries might devote themselves to the study of the Chinese language, an initiative subsequently 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 indigenous priests; in the same year, the central hospital of Mongolia at Kwei-Sui (prov. of Sui-Yuan), with schools for male and female nurses; and, moreover, new houses of his congregation in Belgium and Holland.
On returning to Mongolia after the end of his generalate (1930), with the advice and assistance of Pio XI, he went to Poland to study epidemic typhus under Prof. Rudweigl at Lvov; he sent young Chinese physicians to Louvain for the same purpose; then, at the Catholic University of Peking, he founded a laboratory to prepare vaccines and sera on the spot, thus saving young missionaries from the terrible disease. A member of the Synodal Commission for seminaries and hygiene, he spent the last years of his life studying the inter-dialectal romanization of the Chinese language.