Ruet, Francisco De Paula

Ruet, Francisco De Paula, a Spanish Protestant minister, was born at Barcelona in 1826. When nineteen years of age he became deeply impressed with the evangelical truth under the preaching of De Sanctis at Turin, and he at once decided for the Protestant faith. Having been ordained at Gibraltar, he at once betook himself to the preaching of the Gospel in his own native place with that ardor and zeal which characterizes the nature of the Spaniard. The fanaticism of the Romish Church, however, brought about his expulsion from his country for the remainder of his life. He went to Gibraltar, and from that place he labored for the evangelization of his country with great effect, and was the means of bringing Matamoros to the Gospel truth. The revolution which broke out in 1868 once more brought him back to his country, and from that time he labored at Madrid in the most intimate connection with the brothers Fliedner, preaching at the Jesus' chapel in Calatrava Street until he died, Nov. 18, 1878. Ruet was the senior among the Protestant clergy of Spain, and also the first who had suffered imprisonment and exile for the sake of the evangelical faith. (B.P.)