WATRIGANT, HENRI. - Jesuit, writer on ascetics, b. Feb. 20, 1845, at Lille; d. at Enghien (Belgium), Feb. 23, 1923.
Having entered the Order in 1868 and been ordained priest in 1880, he devoted himself from the earliest years to the study of the *Spiritual Exercises* of St. Ignatius, applying to them the best of his strength and time and founding a house for closed retreats at Château-Blanc (Lille), which he had to leave in 1887 on account of his poor health. But he continued his scientific research on the same subject, founding the journal *Collection de la Bibliothèque des Exercices de st Ignace* (from 1906) and opening at Enghien a *Bibliothèque on the Exercises*, in which he collected more than 8,000 works, including some very rare ones. He devoted himself to the bibliography of the Exercises and became an expert consultant and guide to numerous investigators in this field. He also wrote a few spiritual booklets, such as *Deux méthodes de spiritualité* (Paris 1900); *Ecole de spiritualité simplifiée et la formule «Laissez faire Dieu»* (ibid. 1903); and he edited ancient works and texts concerning the Exercises.