Neff, FELIX

Neff, FELIX, a Protestant pastor, born at Geneva, 8th October 1798, was in his twenty-sixth year ordained, in England, to minister to the neglected inhabitants of the lofty Alpine valleys in the east of the department of Hautes Alpes. His parish was a most difficult one to minister to, owing to its mountainous nature and great extent (80 miles long), and the uncivilised character of the people. But with unwearied devotion and simple piety Neff laboured amongst them like his chosen model, Oberlin (q.v.), until his death, 12th April 1829. See Memoir by W. S. Gilly (1832), and Letters and Biography (trans. from French of Bost, 1843).