In 1855 he was sent to Hazebrouck to the college there where he studied under the noted priest Jacques Dehaene before graduating from the college in August 1859. In his adolescence he felt called to the priesthood (which manifested at Christmas 1865) but his father sent him instead for his education at the Sorbonne in Paris. He earned a degree in civil law on 2 April 1864 (with top honors) after his studies from 1860 to 1864 but had spent much of his free time in a local church. His father sent him on a long tour of the East (including Palestine) but en route back home entered the Saint Claire institute in Rome on 25 October 1865 to begin his ecclesial studies. Before he entered he met with Pope Pius IX who encouraged and blessed his vocation with Dehon referring to Pius IX as "goodness united with holiness".