Message from our Director

Dear Friends of the Bollandists,

I hope you are all well in these difficult times.  Here, despite the limitations caused by the pandemic, our Society was able to carry on with its various activities.  Scholars’ access to our library had to be restricted for a while but thanks to the scanner they were not deprived of consulting the rare publications they were looking for.  Travels were cancelled but conferences and courses could be held online.  We can surely be thankful to such technical progresses for allowing us to pursue an almost normal life.  But hopefully the rarefaction of “real” contacts which we are experiencing during these months will encourage us in the future to value every single meeting more preciously.  Despite the many restrictions may you all enjoy a peaceful Christmas and let us hope in a virus-free 2021!

 
Robert Godding SJ
A new collaborator!
We are delighted to welcome a new member to our team.  Fr. Diego Arfuch, priest of the Society of Saint Sulpice, has been appointed a member associate of the Bollandist Society. A specialist in Byzantine hagiography, he currently teaches Church history at the Sulpician seminary in Issy-les-Moulineaux. From now on he will also collaborate part-time to our various projects.
In collaboration with the Lumen Christi Institute and America Media, we started a series of events online. The first one took place on the day considered most auspicious for the Bollandists, the day of All Saints, November 1 and we were honoured that Fr. John O’Malley, SJ accepted to inaugurate the cycle with a talk dedicated to the cult of the saints.
 

Iconography and Hagiography: Visualizing Holiness” was the title of the Fourtheenth Conference of Iconographic Studies organized by the Centre for Iconographic Studies of the University of Rijeka (Croatia) in collaboration with “Hagiotheca” (Croatian Hagiography Society) and the Société des Bollandistes. It was held online on 15-16 October 2020. The texts will be published in the next volume of Ikon in 2021.

“Bottega dell’agiografo” (Workshop of the Hagiographer) is a cycle of eight lessons organized (online and in Italian) from October 2020 to May 2021 by the Scuola superiore di studi medievali e francescani (dir. Fr. Marco Guida, Pontificia Università Antonianum, Rome) and the Société des Bollandistes in order to introduce the participants to the instruments and methods specific to the study of the hagiographical sources.  The first two lessons, dedicated to “Sources, Repertoires and Instruments” and “Calendars and Martyrologies” were given by Robert Godding.

The Bollandist Fund Christmas Appeal!

Do you know that your contributions can really make a difference?  Supporting a research project on hagiographic manuscripts, helping our library to purchase a rare book, contributing to the digitization of our card catalogues, are just a few examples of what can be achieved with your help.
You can support the Bollandists by using the link below to make your year-end, tax-deductible gift:
https://www.bollandistes.org/support-us/
If you have any questions please email us at saintsernin@bollandistes.be

We thank you in advance for your generosity and we extend our gratitude to those who support us already.

Find out what is in the next issue of Analecta Bollandiana 138, II December 2020:
 
Andrey Kurbanov – Lydia Spyridonova.  Les Vies de sainte Dom­nika (BHG 562, 562d, 562f).  Textes grecs édités et commentés avec traduction de BHG 562f  

Paolo Tomea.  Giunte alla fortuna dei Nomina archangelorum e di Pantasaron

Dirk Krausmüller.  The Encomium of the Five Martyrs Eustratius, Auxentius, Eugenius, Mardarius and Orestes (BHG 646b) by Mi­chael the Monk. Edition and Translation.

José Carlos Martín-Iglesias – Salvador Iranzo Abellán.  Dos nuevos fragmentos manuscritos del s. XI de la Vita vel Passio S. Desiderii (BHL 2148) de Sisebuto de Toledo (612-621): trans­cripción y estudio  

Pádraig Ó Riain.  Feasts of Irish and Scottish Saints in Hermann Greven’s Martyrology and Devotionale. A Review of the Evidence

Giuseppe Antonio Guazzelli.  Un volume dell’antica biblioteca dei Bollandisti di Anversa ritrovato a Durham (Durham University Library, Palace Green, SA 0032)

Bernard Joassart.  James Houston Baxter et Hippolyte Delehaye. Correspondance

Robert Godding.  Italia Hagiographica (X). Chronique d’hagiographie italienne.

Les saints anciens au temps de la Réforme catholique (Europe occidentale, XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles).  Déclin ou renouveau ?
is the title of a new volume in the series Subsidia hagiographica.  It contains the acts of the conference organized in October 2019 by the Bollandist Society and the Université Saint-Louis (Brussels).  The fourteen contributions (300 pages), edited by François De Vriendt and Philippe Desmette, highlight how the ancient saints (those anterior to 1000 A.D.) were perceived from the 16th to the 18th century, as well as the transformations which sometimes affected their identity.