Joseph Rouville Laurier Angers was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on September 27, 1912, and attended public grade schools in Springfield for two years before being sent to Mount Saint Louis, the Christian Brothers' boarding school in Montreal, Quebec. He returned to Springfield to complete his secondary education at Classical High School and then began studies for a degree in modern languages at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. In 1937, he entered the Dominican novitiate at St. Rose Priory, Springfield, Kentucky, where he was given Sebastian as a religious name. After first profession on September 15, 1938, he pursued philosophical and theological studies at the Dominican House of Studies in River Forest, Illinois, where he was ordained to the priesthood on June 8, 1944.

Father Angers was first assigned to St. Joseph Parish in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, as associate pastor and business manager for the religious community. Subsequent assignments as associate pastor and business manager took him to St. Pius V in Chicago, Illinois, from 1948 to 1951; St. Dominic in Denver, Colorado, from 1951 to 1954; Holy Name in Kan as City, Missouri, from 1954 to 1957; Mater Dolorosa in In dependence, Louisiana, from 1957 to 1962; St. Albert the Great in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 1962 to 1965; St. Dominic in New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1965 to 1967; St. Margaret in Boyce, Louisiana, from 1967 to 1969; and St. Patrick in Montgomery, Louisiana, from 1969 to 1970.

In the spring of 1970, Father Angers took a special course in Clinical Pastoral Education at the Boys' Industrial School in Topeka, Kansas, to focus his ministry on serving physically and emotionally handicapped children. The following summer, he was named Chaplain to the Hammond State School in Hammond, Louisiana. From 1974 to 1975, he served as Chaplain to St. Coletta School in Jefferson, Wisconsin. He returned to the Hammond chaplaincy in 1975 with added duties as Chaplain to the Dominican Sisters in Rosaryville, Louisiana, until 1976 when he was asked to supply in a temporary capacity as Chaplain at St. Mary's Rogers Memorial Hospital in Rogers, Arkansas.

During the spring of 1976, Father Angers suffered a breakdown from severe emotional stress and was sent to Villa Pius XII in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for treatment. By February 1977, he was able to resume his ministry and was appointed Chaplain first at Mercy Medical Center in Durango, Colorado, and then at St. Joseph Hospital in Del Norte, Colorado. A serious heart condition began to trouble him a year later, and he returned to Albuquerque for special cardiac therapy. While recuperating at the Paraclete Infirmary in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, he suffered a massive heart attack and died on June 14, 1978. His body was sent to Ponchatoula, Louisiana, the site of his first priestly assignment. Following services in the chapel of St. Mary's Dominican Convent, Father Angers was buried in the community cemetery in Rosaryville, Louisiana.