WATRIGANT, HENRI. - Jesuit, writer on ascetical theology, b. 20 February 1845 at Lille, d. at Enghien (Belgium) on 23 February 1923.

He entered the Order in 1868 and was ordained a priest in 1880; from his earliest years he devoted himself to the study of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, giving to it the best of his strength and his time and founding a house for closed retreats at Château-Blanc (Lille), which he had to leave in 1887 because of his poor health. But he continued his scholarly research on the same subject, giving rise to the journal Collection de la Bibliothèque des Exercices de 1st Ignace (from 1906), and opening at Enghien a Bibliothèque on the exercises, in which he gathered more than 8000 works, among them some very rare ones. He concerned himself with the bibliography on the exercises and became an expert consultor and guide to numerous researchers in this field. He also wrote a few spiritual pamphlets, such as Deux méthodes de spiritualité (Paris 1900); Ecole de spiritualité simplifiée et la formule « Laissez faire Dieu » (ibid. 1903); and he edited the publication of ancient works and texts concerning the exercises.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: anon., Le p. H. W. (Collect. Bibl. des Exercices, n. 100), Enghien 1926; E. Basabe, El p. H. W., Los primeros triunfos del apóstol, in Manresa, 10 (1934), pp. 350-65; 11 (1935), pp. 169-175; id., El p. H. W., el organizador de Château-Blanc, ibid., 13 (1940), pp. 74-87.

Arnaldo M. Lanz

@incollection{ec12_watrigant_henri, author = {Lanz, Arnaldo Maria}, title = {Watrigant, henri}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1658}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/watrigant-henri} }

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Watrigant, Henri

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