Augustin Ravoux

Who was Augustin Ravoux?

Augustin Ravoux was a French Jesuit priest and missionary who served in the area preceding Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, in Minnesota.

Ravoux was born in Langeac, Auvergne, France. He left his hometown for the Diocese in nearby Le Puy-en-Velay, and was inducted into the clergy via clerical tonsure on May 20, 1835. He received his minor orders nearly a year later on 28 May 1836, and became a subdeacon a year after that on 20 May 1837. While a subdeacon at the Grand séminaire in Le Puy-en-Velay, Ravoux was recruited by Bishop Mathias Loras, along with Vicar general Joseph Crétin, Reverend Pelamourgues, and fellow subdeacons Lucien Galtier, Remigius Petiot, and James Causse, to work as Jesuit missionaries out of the newly established Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque.

The group departed Le Havre on August 27, 1837 aboard the American brigantine Lion until their arrival in New York Harbor forty-four days later. Ravoux started learning the English language while en route and then formally afterwards at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Traveled to Dubuque, where he was ordained along with Galtier on January 5, 1840.