BAUDOUIN, LOUIS MARIE, VEN.

Religious founder; b. Montaigu (Vendée), France, Aug. 2, 1765; d. Chavagnes-en-Paillers (Vendée), Feb. 12, 1835. Educated by the Vincentians at the seminary of Luçon, he was ordained in 1789 and appointed assistant to his brother, who was pastor in Luçon. When the civil constitution of the clergy was legislated during the french revolution, the Baudouin brothers refused to take the required oath and were barred from priestly ministrations in the village church. The two emigrated to Spain in 1792. When his brother died (1796) Louis returned to France, where he became a refugee at Sables d'Olonne. Since the persecution against priests had been renewed, he exercised a hidden apostolate. In 1802, he became a parish priest in Chavagnes. There he founded a religious congregation known as the Sons of Mary Immaculate of Luçon, more commonly as the Priests of Chavagnes. Together with Gabrielle Charlotte Ranfray de la Rochette, a former religious, he founded a congregation of women devoted to the education of young girls, the Ursulines of Jesus. Named rector of the seminary of La Rochelle in 1812, he became vicar-general of the restored See of Luçon in 1822. He was proclaimed venerable in 1871.

Bibliography: m. maupilier, Louis-Marie Baudouin, prêtre et ses disciples: une famille religieuse dans l'Église (Paris 1973). p. michaud, Life of the Ven. Louis Marie Baudouin, tr. w. a. phillipson (London 1914). j. robin, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique. Doctrine et histoire, ed. m. viller et al. (Paris 1932) 1:1286–87.

[l. p. mahoney]