SOCIÉTÉ DES BOLLANDISTES

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Hagiographical studies have never taken such an important place as in recent times: innumerable publications and conferences have been highlighting for some years the eminent role of hagiographic sources in our knowledge of societies, cultures and civilizations of the Christian world.

For the Société des Bollandistes, however, hagiography is not a temporary fashion: it has been a tradition for 400 years! It was indeed in 1607 that the Jesuit Heribert Rosweyde published his Fasti Sanctorum, a booklet announcing the project of a new collection of ancient and medieval saints’ lives, realized according to rigorous philological and historical criteria.   In 1643 the first volume of Acta Sanctorum was published in Antwerp.

Since then, a small group of hagiographers has been strenuously continuing the work of John Bollandus (†1665). Methods may have progressed, as well as knowledge, even the aspect of the books has changed, but the spirit is always the same. It is the spirit of a team of specialists, entirely devoted to hagiographical research: only hagiography, but the whole of it (Latin, Greek, Oriental...).

Short History of the Société des Bollandistes

In Antwerp
• 1607: Publication of Fr Heribert Rosweyde's Fasti sanctorum quorum Vitae in Belgicis bibliothecis manuscriptae: plan for the publication (in 18 folio volumes) of the Lives of the Saints, as found in the manuscripts kept in Belgian libraries.
• 1615: Publication of Rosweyde's Vitae Patrum: the Lives of the fathers of the desert in one folio volume of 1100 pages.   It is the foundation stone of the Acta Sanctorum.
• 1630: Fr Jean Bolland (Bollandus) is transferred to the Jesuit Professed House at Antwerp, in order to bring Rosweyde's work to completion.
• 1643: Publication of the two volumes of January of the Acta Sanctorum by Bollandus and Henschenius.
• July 1660 - December 1662: Henschenius and Papebrochius travelling through Germany, Italy and France in order to collect copies of hagiographic manuscripts.
• 1783: Publication of the first volume of Acta Sanctorum Belgii selecta by Joseph Ghesquière.
• 1788: Suppression of the Bollandists by the Austrian Government of the Low Countries. The work continues for a while in the Abbey of Tongerlo.   From 1643 to 1794, 53 folio volumes of Acta Sanctorum had been published, covering the saints from January 1 to October 14.

1837 : Brussels
• 1837: Constitution, by the Belgian Jesuits, of the new Société des Bollandistes in Brussels.
• 1882: Publication of vol. 1 of Analecta Bollandiana: a journal of critical hagiography.
• 1886: Publication of the first volume of the series Subsidia Hagiographica: collection of monographs, repertories of texts (as the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina or Graeca) and catalogues of manuscripts, entirely dedicated to hagiography.
• 1905: Transfer to the newly built Collège Saint-Michel in Brussels.
• 1940: Publication of the critical commentary of the Martyrologium Romanum directed by Fr Hippolyte Delehaye.
• 1996: The Société des Bollandistes launches this website dedicated to hagiography.
• 1998: Launching of Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina manuscripta (BHLms), a database of hagiographic manuscripts accessible online.

Since 1905
• 1999: Launching of Acta Sanctorum Database by Chadwyck-Healey (ProQuest), in collaboration with the Société des Bollandistes.
• 2002: Publication of the first two volumes of the series Tabularium hagiographicum, dedicated to the correspondence and archives of Bollandists and other scholars.
• 2007: 400^th anniversary of the publication of Rosweyde’s Fasti Sanctorum.

For more details:

• R. GODDING - B. JOASSART - X. LEQUEUX-Fr. DE VRIENDT - J. VAN DER STRAETEN Bollandistes, saints et légendes. Quatre siècles de recherche. Bruxelles, Société des Bollandistes, 2007.
• H. DELEHAYE, The Work of the Bollandists through three Centuries, 1615-1915. Princeton University Press, 1922. From the original French: H. DELEHAYE, L'oeuvre des Bollandistes à travers trois siècles. 1615-1915, 2^nd ed. (= Subsidia Hagiographica,13a), Brussels, 1913.
• P. PEETERS, L'oeuvre des Bollandistes,2^nd ed. (= Subsidia Hagiographica, 24). Brussels, 1961 (reprint 1968).
• D. KNOWLES, Great Historical Enterprises. Problems in Monastic History. London, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, 1963, p. 3-32: "The Bollandists".