RAVIGNAN, FRANCIS XAVIER DELACROIX DE, a celebrated preacher of the Jesuit order, was b. at Bayonne, Dec. 2, 1795. He studied in the Lyci.te Bonaparte at Paris. and having embraced the legal profession, and obtained his degree, was named auditor of the Cour Royale at Paris, and afterward, in 1821, received an appointment in the-tribunal of the Seine. The prospect thus opened for him, however, soon lost its attraction, and in 1822 he formed the resolution of relinquishing his career at the bar, and entering the church. Having spent some time in the college of St. Sulpice, he soon passed into the novitiate of the Jesuits at Montrouge, and thence to Dole and St. Acheul for his theological studies, at the termination of which he was himself appointed a pro fessor. On the expulsion of the Jesuits from France, in 1830, Ravignan withdrew to Freiburg in Switzerland, where he continued to teach in the schools of his own order; bu'; after some time he was transferred to the more congenial duty of preaching, first in several of the Swiss towns, and afterward in Savoy, at Chambery, at St. Manrice, and other places. At length, in 1835, he appeared in the pulpit of the cathedral of Amiens. In the following year he was chosen to preach the Lenten sermons at the church of St. Thomas d'Aquin in Paris; and finally, in 1837, was selected to replace Lacordaire (q.v.) at Notre Dame, in the duty of conducting the special "conferences" for men
which had been opened in that church. For ten years P2;re the Eavignan occupied this pulpit with a success which has rarely been equaled, and his " conferences" are regarded as models of ecclesiastical eloquence. In 1S42 he undertook in addition to preach each evening during the entire Lent; and it is to the excessive fatigue thus induced that the premature break-down of his strength is ascribed. To the labors of the pulpit lie added those also of the press. He published an apology of his order in 1844; and in 1S54 a more lengthened work with the same view, Clement XIII et Clement XIV., 2 vole. Svo, which was intended as a reply to the Life of Clement XIV., by the Oratorian father Theiner. These, with some occasional sermons and " conferences," constitute the Wm of the publications issued during his life. In 1855 he was invited by the emperor Napoleon III. to preach the Lent at the Tuileries. On Feb. 26, 1858, he died in the con vent of his order at Paris, in his 63d year. His memoirs have been published by his brethren, and a collected edition of his works and remains has been for sonic time in progress.