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VENERABLE FELIX de JESUS ROUGIER was born in Meilhaud, France, in 1859. After completing his primary studies, Felix entered the school-seminary of Le Puy. At age 18, during a talk on the missions in Oceania, he felt God's call and decided to become a missionary and entered the novitiate of the Marist Fathers.
He was ordained to the priesthood on September 24, 1887. After his Ordination, he was assigned to the Marist Scholasticate in Barcelona, Spain, where he taught Sacred Scripture for eight years.
On July 12, 1895, Father Felix was sent to Colombia. There, he developed a fruitful ministry as a teacher, preacher, apostle of the poor, military chaplain, local superior of his community, and the interim Vicar General of the Diocese of Tolima. At that time, Colombia's civil war was escalating, so the Marist superiors decided to send their religious to Mexico.
In 1901, Father Felix was appointed pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Mexico City. While serving the French community in the Mexican capital, he experienced a growing desire for a deeper spiritual life and asked the Holy Spirit to lead him. His first encounter with the mystic Venerable Concepción Cabrera occurred on February 4, 1903. He heard her confession but in a turn of events, she wound up advising him. "She revealed to me all the nooks and crannies of my soul...that I needed to make a conscious effort to give myself to the service of God: that I should make a new start."
That first meeting with such a holy woman of God reinforced in him the desire to live a life of perfection. At this time, Father Felix added Jesus to his name as a sign of his complete belonging to the Lord.
His
request was denied, and he was ordered to cut communications with Mexico. He
obeyed his superiors, and for the following ten years, he lived what he
described as his "exile" in Europe. In 1913 Pope St. Pius X gave
permission for the foundation. Father Felix returned to Mexico, and the
Congregation was founded on December 25, 1914.
Father Felix's apostolic zeal also led him to the foundation of three religious communities of women: the Daughters of the Holy Spirit on January 12, 1924, the Oblates of Jesus the Priest on February 9, 1924, and the Missionaries Guadalupanas of the Holy Spirit on September 15, 1930.
He had a special
love for priests and the priesthood. In times of religious persecution in
Mexico, he promoted an inter-diocesan seminary in the United States and founded
a house for priests in Mexico City.
On September 24, 1937, Father Felix celebrated his priesthood's golden jubilee,
surrounded by the love of his spiritual daughters and sons. He had earned a
reputation for his holiness of life, and people recognized him as a man of God.
Venerable Felix of Jesus died on January 10, 1938. In June of 2000, Pope St. John Paul II acknowledged his Christian virtues to be those of a heroic degree and declared him Venerable.