People like Felix Martin

Félix Martin (born 4 October 1804, in Auray, Morbihan; died in Vaugirard, Paris, 25 November 1886) was an antiquary, historiographer, architect, and educationist.

His father, Jacques Augustin Martin, for many years mayor of Auray and Attorney-General of Morbihan, was a public benefactor. His mother was Anne Arnel Lauzer de Kerzo, a pious matron, of whose ten children three entered religious communities, while the others, as heads of families, were highly regarded in Breton society. Felix, having made his classical studies at the Jesuit seminary close by the shrine of St. Anne in Auray, entered the Society of Jesus at Montrouge, Paris, 27 September 1823, but on the opening of a new novitiate at Avignon, in Aug., 1824, he was transferred there. Thence in 1826 he was sent to the one time famous college of Arc, at Dole, to complete his logic and gain his first experience in the management of youth among its 400 pupils. The following scholastic year, 1826–1827, in Saint-Acheul, he began his career as teacher. This was soon to be interrupted, for already among the revolutionists of the boulevards and in the Chamber of Deputies, accusations had been formulated against the Jesuits. This agitation culminated on 16 June 1828, in the "Ordonnances de Charles X" which were to be enforced the following October. The Fathers, meanwhile, quietly closed their colleges, their teachers went into temporary exile, among them Fr. Martin. He spent the succeeding years in colleges established across the frontier.