Venerable Felix Rougier

Felix Rougier was born in Meilhaud, France, on December 17, 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. Felix 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, Fr. Felix was sent to Colombia. There, he developed a most 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, Fr. 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. Fr. Felix's first encounter with Venerable Mrs. Concepción Cabrera occurred on February 4, 1903. That first meeting with such a holy woman of God reinforced in him the desire to live a life of perfection.  At this time, Fr. Felix added Jesus to his name as a sign of his complete belonging to the Lord.

Feeling called to begin a new religious community, Fr. Felix started a long and serious discernment process, openly consulting with many ecclesiastical officials. Fr. Felix left for France on July 16, 1904, to ask his superior's permission to start the foundation of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit. His request was denied, and he was ordered to cut communications with Mexico. Heroically, 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. Fr. Felix returned to Mexico, and the Congregation was founded on December 25, 1914.

Fr. 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. Fr. Felix 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, Fr. 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. At the end of his life, he said, "In my life, Jesus has done it all" and, "With Mary everything, and without her, nothing." Fr. Felix of Jesus Rougier 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.