RAVIGNAN, rā"vî"nyān', GUSTAVE FRANÇOIS XAVIER DE LA CROIX DE: Roman Catholic; b. at Bayonne Dec. 2, 1795; d. in Paris Feb. 26, 1858. He was educated in the Lycée Bonaparte; studied law, and had already begun practising as an advocate in Paris, when he entered the order of the Jesuits and the Seminary of St. Sulpice. When the Jesuits were expelled from France, in 1830, he repaired to Switzerland, and became a teacher at Freiburg; but in 1835 he returned to France, and in 1837 he succeeded Lacordaire as preacher of Notre Dame. He was considered one of the greatest preachers of his time, vehement in pathos, trenchant in irony, audacious but compelling in argument. In 1848 he retired to his convent on account of ill health. He published De l'existence et de l'institute des jésuites (Paris, 1844; 10th ed., 1901), and Clément XIII. et Clément XIV. (2 vols., 1854).