Hippolyte Delehaye, S.J., (19 August 1859 – 1 April 1941) was a Belgian Jesuit who was a

hagiographical A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies mig ...

scholar and an outstanding member of the Society of

Bollandist The Bollandist Society ( la, Societas Bollandistarum french: Société des Bollandistes) are an association of scholars, philologists, and historians (originally all Jesuits, but now including non-Jesuits) who since the early seventeenth century h ...

Biography

Born in 1859 in Antwerp, Delehaye joined the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

in 1876,"Delehaye, Reverend Hippolyte", ''The Catholic Encyclopedia and Its Makers'', New York, the Encyclopedia Press, 1917, p. 41
/ref> being received into the novitiate the following year. After making his initial profession of religious vows in 1879, he was sent to study philosophy at the University of Louvain from 1879 to 1882. He was then assigned until 1886 to teach mathematics at the Collège Sainte-Barbe in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

(named for the

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, '' alma mater'' of

Ignatius of Loyola Ignatius of Loyola, S.J. (born Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola; eu, Ignazio Loiolakoa; es, Ignacio de Loyola; la, Ignatius de Loyola; – 31 July 1556), venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian, ...

). Delehaye was ordained in 1890. In 1892 Fr Delehaye was appointed by his Jesuit superiors to be a fellow of the Society of

Bollandists The Bollandist Society ( la, Societas Bollandistarum french: Société des Bollandistes) are an association of scholars, philologists, and historians (originally all Jesuits, but now including non-Jesuits) who since the early seventeenth century ...

, named for the 17th-century hagiographical scholar

Jean Bolland Jean Bolland ( la, Johannes Bollandus) (13 August 1596 – 12 September 1665) was a Jesuit priest, theologian, and prominent Flemish hagiographer. Bolland's main achievement is the compilation of the first five volumes of the ''Lives of th ...

, S.J.,and founded the early seventeenth century specifically to study hagiography, research towards the gathering and evaluation of historical documentary sources regarding the life and cult of Christian Saints. Delehaye soon displayed great competence in the field. He was an editor of the ''

Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca The ''Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca'' is a catalogue of Greek hagiographic materials, including ancient literary works on the saints' lives, the translations of their relics, and their miracles, arranged alphabetically by saint. It is us ...

'' (1895), a technical catalogue of Greek hagiographical writings, and of the journal ''Analecta Bollandiana''. In 1912 he became the president of the Society. In the earlier part of the twentieth century fears arose in the Catholic Church about the theological consequences of some methods used in critical historical studies, including biblical scholarship. Later the Church accepted the principle of critical methodology, and in 1930 Pope Pius XI, himself a historical scholar, established a special historical section operating on similar lines, within the

Sacred Congregation of Rites The Sacred Congregation of Rites was a congregation of the Roman Curia, erected on 22 January 1588 by Pope Sixtus V by '' Immensa Aeterni Dei''; it had its functions reassigned by Pope Paul VI on 8 May 1969. The Congregation was charged with the ...

. However, at an earlier juncture suspicion fell for a time on a wide variety of Catholic scholarly institutes, including the Bollandists, whose purpose was to establish scholarly editions of

texts that were based on applying the critical method of sound documentary scholarship. These concerns about theological deviations generally referred to as

Modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

prompted the 1907 encyclical '' Pascendi dominici gregis'', in which St. Pius X condemned them.''Pascendi dominici gregis''
/ref> As a consequence, in those years critical method encountered difficulties, within the

Jesuit Order , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

, within the Holy Office and among "integrist" opponents of critical approaches. As part of the controls put in place by the Catholic authorities, the

' scholarly journal ''Analecta Bollandiana'', was subject to censorship by the

Holy Office The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsible f ...

during the years 1901–1927. These were issues of broader scope that did not prevent Fr Delehaye from continuing as a priest in good standing to pursue his researches with the

for the greater part of his long life and maintaining his international reputation as a respected and able scholar. He was a member of the Austrian Archaeological Institute, and named Knight of the Order of Leopold. Delehaye wrote a number of articles for the ''Catholic Encyclopedia''.

Books

Delehaye's major publications, works of method and synthesis that are of general use to historians, are: *''Les Légendes hagiographiques'', Brüssels 1905, 1906 (translated by

Virginia Mary Crawford Virginia Mary Crawford (20 November 1862 -1948) was a British Catholic suffragist, feminist, journalist and author, cited in the publicised Dilke scandal and divorce in 1886, founder of the ''Catholic Women's Suffrage Society''. Life and caree ...

, 1907, reprinted 1998), 1927. A 1955 French edition was translated by

Donald Attwater Donald Attwater by Eric Gill, 1929, private collection. Donald Attwater (24 December 1892 – 30 January 1977) was a British Catholic author, editor and translator, and a visiting lecturer at the University of Notre Dame. Life Attwater was born ...

as ''The Legends of the Saints'' (

Fordham University Press The Fordham University Press is a publishing house, a division of Fordham University, that publishes primarily in the humanities and the social sciences. Fordham University Press was established in 1907 and is headquartered at the university's Li ...

, 1962). *''Les Origines du culte des martyrs'', 1912 *''Les Passions des martyrs et les genres littéraires'', 1921 *''Sanctus. Essai sur le culte des saints dans l'antiquité'', 1927 Other important works, with more restricted focus, are: *''Les versions grecques des Actes des martyrs persans sous Sapor II'', 1905 *''Les Légendes grecques des saints militaires'', 1909 *''A travers trois siècles: L'Oeuvre des Bollandistes 1615 à 1915'', 1920 (translated in 1922) *''Les saints Stylites'', 1923 *''

Martyrologium Romanum The ''Roman Martyrology'' ( la, Martyrologium Romanum) is the official martyrology of the Catholic Church. Its use is obligatory in matters regarding the Roman Rite liturgy, but dioceses, countries and religious institutes may add duly approv ...

...'' (Propylaeum ad Acta SS. Decembris), 194 A commentary on the Roman martyrology, of which Delehaye was the chief editor. *''Cinq leçons sur la méthode hagiographique'', 1934. Posthumous collections of fugitive pieces were published in 1966 as ''Mélanges d'hagiographie grecque et latine'' and in 1991 as ''L'ancienne hagiographie byzantine: les sources, les premiers modèles, la formation des genres'', the previously unpublished texts of lectures delivered in 1935.

Notes

References

*
Hippolyte Delehaye, ''The Legends of the Saints: An Introduction to Hagiography'' (1907)
* B. Joassart, ''Hippolyte Delehaye. Hagiographie critique et modernisme'', (Subsidia Hagiographica, 81), 2 vols. Brussels, 2000

External links

Delehaye, Hippolyte. ''Legends of the Saints'', (V.M. Crawford, trans.), 1907
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delehaye, Hippolyte 1859 births 1941 deaths Clergy from Antwerp 20th-century Belgian Jesuits Christian hagiographers 19th-century Belgian Jesuits Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy