Global InformationStephen Larigaudelle Dubuisson information
The Reverend Stephen Larigaudelle Dubuisson SJ | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 14th President of Georgetown College | |
| In office 1825–1826 | |
| Preceded by | Benedict Joseph Fenwick |
| Succeeded by | William Feiner |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Étienne de La Rigaudelle du Buisson 21 October 1786 Saint-Marc, Saint-Domingue |
| Died | 14 August 1864 (aged 77) Pau, Basses-Pyrénées, Second French Empire |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 7 August 1821 by Ambrose Maréchal |
Stephen Larigaudelle Dubuisson SJ (born Étienne de La Rigaudelle du Buisson; 21 October 1786 – 14 August 1864) was a French Catholic priest and Jesuit missionary to the United States.
Born to a wealthy family in Saint-Domingue, Dubuisson fled the Haitian Revolution for France, where he entered the civil service and rose to senior positions in Napoleon's imperial court. In 1815, he decided to enter the Society of Jesus and sailed for the United States. He engaged in pastoral work in Maryland and Washington, D.C., before becoming the president of Georgetown College in 1825. An austere personality, his leadership of the school was not successful. He suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to recover in Rome in 1826, where he met Jan Roothaan, the Jesuit Superior General. Upon returning to the United States, he acted as a close confidant of Roothaan.
Dubuisson spent the next two decades engaged in pastoral work in Maryland, Virginia, and Philadelphia. He also traveled Europe, fundraising for the American Jesuits among the royalty and nobility. In 1841, he permanently returned to France and spent his later years as chaplain to the family and manor of Duke Mathieu de Montmorency in Borgo San Dalmazzo, and then as a parish priest in Toulouse.