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 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.

[4] In light of the impending Haitian Revolution, du Buisson's father sent him (at the age of five) and his brothers, Noël-Marie and Joseph, to Nantes, France, sometime between March and May 1791.

Arriving in the midst of the French Revolution, the boys survived the Reign of Terror,[2] and the massacres of the War in the Vendée, including the occupation of Nantes by the Catholic and Royal Armies in 1792.

[7] He would eventually come to speak seven languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and Ancient Greek, and have a working knowledge of Hebrew.

[2] Du Buisson then returned to France, where he resided in an apartment in the royal Tuileries Palace in Paris, serving as the cashier-comptroller of the crown from December 1814 to June 1815.

During this time, he befriended Baron François Roullet de La Bouillerie, a member of the Conseil d'État and the intendant of the treasury of the civil list.

[2] Du Buisson retained his employment in the civil service through the abdication of Napoleon and the restoration of Louis XVIII as King of France, which allowed him to support his family members.

[9] Unbeknownst to his family, Dubisson set sail for the United States with the Sulpician priest Simon Bruté, whose order was active in North America.

Dubuisson found himself in the midst of tensions between the Anglo-American Jesuits, who adopted republicanism and American culture, and their Continental European counterparts who were more traditional and austere.

He presented a sworn public statement of his account of the events and purported miracle,[11] and published a pamphlet, whose French language version was circulated around Europe.

[15] His reputation as a severe disciplinarian resulted in declining student enrollment, and he soon requested that the Jesuit Superior General, Luigi Fortis, relieve him of the office.

[17] As a pretext for his departure, Dzierozynski charged him with visiting various French cities to raise money to finance the return voyage of a group of Maryland Jesuits who had gone to Europe,[18] and he resided in Marseille for a time.

[12] In August 1829, Roothaan sent Dubuisson back to the United States with the responsibility of keeping him informed about the affairs of the Jesuits' Maryland mission.

[29] As the Jesuits debated whether to sell their farms in Maryland, which would significantly change the character of the order in the United States, Dubuisson argued against such a decision, believing landownership afforded them security in the event of economic disaster.

He viewed abolitionism as dangerously idealistic and capable of producing a Reign of Terror similar to the one he lived through in France, while also ultimately harming the freed slaves.

[32] Dubuisson also praised the racially integrated Masses he observed in parts of Maryland, where blacks and whites received the Eucharist and sang in the choir on equal status.

[28] This transfer was due in part to the fact that Kenney believed it improper for a Jesuit, especially a young one, to be the confessor of nuns and female students, as it created opportunity for sexual impropriety.

As such, he ministered to a wide diversity of parishioners, including prominent, established Maryland families, white immigrants who fled Haiti, black slaves, and Protestant converts.

[35] In August of that year, Dubuisson was transferred back to Georgetown, once again becoming the pastor of Holy Trinity Church,[35] where he replaced John Van Lommel.

In anticipation of the congregation, he prepared a report on the state of affairs of the Maryland province, which he would present to the Superior General upon his arrival in Rome.

[45] After the congregation, Dubuisson traveled extensively throughout Europe, paying frequent visits to the royal courts of Vienna, Munich, Milan, Turin, Lyon, and Paris, and became well acquainted with many of the royalty and nobility.

The provincial superior, William McSherry, assigned him as the acting pastor of St. Mary's Church in Alexandria, Virginia, where he was to repair the divisions among parishioners that persisted from an attempted schism 20 years earlier.

[48] In addition to his pastoral duties, Dubuisson taught French at St. Mary's parochial school, three-quarters of whose students were Protestant, and held catechism classes for both the church's white and black parishioners.