Xavier Barbier de Montault (6 February 1830 – 29 March 1901) was a French writer on Catholic Church history,

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

and antiquities.

Life

He was born at

Loudun Loudun (; ; Poitevin: ''Loudin'') is a commune in the Vienne department and the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, western France. It is located south of the town of Chinon and 25 km to the east of the town Thouars. The area south of Loudun ...

, of a noble family. When only eight years old, he was confided to the care of his great-uncle, Charles Montault des Isles, Bishop of Angers. He studied theology at the Seminary of St. Sulpice, and went to Rome to continue his studies in theology and archaeology at the

Sapienza The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is as such one of the ...

and the

Roman College The Roman College (, ) was a school established by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1551, just 11 years after he founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It quickly grew to include classes from elementary school through university level and moved to seve ...

. After four years his health obliged him to return to France (1857), where he was appointed historiographer of the Diocese of Angers. He searched the archives of the diocese, studied its inscriptions and monuments, and founded a diocesan museum, a project in which Arcisse de Caumont took a lively interest. Another sojourn of fourteen years in Rome (1861–75) enabled him to augment his knowledge of liturgy and Christian antiquities. He was canonical consultor to different French bishops, and at the

First Vatican Council The First Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the First Vatican Council or Vatican I, was the 20th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, held three centuries after the preceding Council of Trent which was adjourned in 156 ...

acted as theologian to Mgr Desflèches. He died, aged 71, at Blaslay, Vienne, France.

Works

His first archæological study appeared in 1851 in the "Annales archéologiques", and Adolphe Napoléon Didron assigned him the task of making an index for this publication. Barbier de Montault was one of the most prolific contributors to the "Revue de l'art chrétien" from the inception of this periodical, his articles continuing to appear until 1903 (two years after his death). He also wrote numerous articles for other reviews as well as several separate works on iconography, ecclesiastical furniture, liturgy, canon law, etc. In 1889 he began to reprint his scattered works, classifying them according to subjects. This publication was to comprise sixty volumes, but went no further than the sixteenth. *"Œuvres complètes" (unfinished): I. "Inventaires ecclésiastiques"; II. "Le Vatican"; III. "Le Pape"; IV-V. "Droit papal"; VI-VIII. "Dévotions populaires"; IX-XVI. "Hagiographie" (Rome, 1889–1902); *"Traité d'iconographie chrétienne" (2 vols., Paris, 1890); *"Collection des décrets authentiques des ss. congregations romaines" (8 vols., Rome, 1872).

References

*HELBIG, Mgr Xavier Barbier de Montault in Revue de l'art chrétien, (1901), 357–60; *GIROU, Etienne: Mgr X. B. de Montault, bio-bibl., Hommes (1910)

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barbier de Montault, Xavier 1830 births 1901 deaths People from Loudun Historians of the Catholic Church 19th-century French historians French antiquarians French Roman Catholic writers 19th-century French writers Writers from Nouvelle-Aquitaine French historiographers 19th-century French male writers