Bollandists

Bollandists, an association or succession of Jesuits by whom the Acta Sanctorum (q.v.), or Lives of the Saints of the Christian Church, were collected and published (1643–1794). They received their name from JOHN BOLLAND, born in the Netherlands 1596, died 1665, who edited the first 5 vols., containing the month of January in 2 vols. published in 1643, and the month of February in 3 vols. published in 1658. The vast undertaking had been projected by a Flemish Jesuit, Heribert Rosweyd, and on his death in 1629 his collections were intrusted to Bolland, who established himself in Antwerp, opened a correspondence all over Europe, and associated young men of his order with himself in the work. The suppression of the Jesuit order in 1773 caused the removal of the Bollandist Society to the monastery of Coudenberg, in Brussels, till the persecutions under Joseph II. brought about its dissolution. In 1789 the abbey of Tongerlo in Brabant took up the colossal task of carrying on the Acta Sanctorum; but scarcely had the 53d volume appeared in May 1794, bringing the calendar down to October 6, when the French occupation, and their destruction of the MS. collections, put an end to the work. In 1837 a new Bollandist association of Jesuits was formed under the patronage of the Belgian government, which set aside a yearly sum of 6000 francs for this object, and in 1845 the 54th volume appeared. Upwards of 60 volumes have now appeared (the part published in December 1887 carrying the work into November); and there is thus a prospect of the completion of this vast work, of which Gibbon has truly said, that 'through the medium of fable and superstition it communicates much historical and philosophical instruction.' A new edition, in 61 vols., was published in Paris (1863–67), and since 1882 supplements, with facsimiles of the more valuable MSS., have appeared at Paris and Brussels, under the title Analecta Bollandiana. See SAINT.