SOLAGES, HENRI de. — Missionary of S. Vincenzo de' Paoli, born in France in 1786, died in Madagascar in 1832.
Appointed apostolic prefect of the island of Bourbon or Réunion (St-Denis) on 7 August 1829, with full authority over the island of Madagascar, he immediately conceived grand and audacious plans for evangelizing the Islands of the South Seas, dependent upon Propaganda Fide, which granted him the title of apostolic prefect of the «Islands of the South Seas», but he found no support from the French Colonial Minister. Having embarked at Bordeaux, he reached his mission on 1 January 1831. He encountered great difficulties and soon fell victim to his ardent zeal. In the summer of 1832 he set foot in Madagascar, but on 8 September of the same year he died of fever at Andevoranto, where the Jesuit Fr. Lhande rediscovered his tomb in 1932.