BAINVEL, VINCENT. - French Jesuit, theologian, and ascetical writer, born at Plougoumen (Morbihan) on 4 August 1858, died in Paris on 29 January 1937. He entered the religious life in 1877, teaching first rhetoric to young scholastics, and later, after completing his theological studies, fundamental theology and ethics at the College of Jersey. In 1900 he was called to the Catholic Institute of Paris to the chair of fundamental theology, which he held until 1925; for many years he also served as dean of the faculty. Stricken in his final years by loss of memory, he spent the last decade of his life in the obscurity of a pious retreat.
As a professor and writer, he took part in the anti-Modernist struggle and founded the collection *Bibliothèque de Théologie historique*. He collaborated on the *Dictionnaire d'Apologétique*, the *DDC*, and the *DThC*. His literary output includes, first and foremost, a series of manuals on fundamental theology: *De magisterio vivo et traditione* (Paris 1905); *De Scriptura Sacra* (ibid. 1910); *De vera religione et apologetica* (ibid. 1914); *De Ecclesia Christi* (ibid. 1925). Of broader popular theological scope are his studies: *La foi et l'acte de foi* (ibid. 1898; 2nd ed. ibid. 1908); *Nature et surnaturel; élevation, déchéance, état présent de l'humanité* (ibid. 1903); and the pamphlet: *Hors de l'Eglise, point de salut; dogme et théologie* (ibid. 1913). In Mariology, he favored the thesis of Mary as co-redemptrix and mediatrix: *Marie, Mère de Dieu, intercession universelle* (ibid. 1919); and with Fr. de la Broise: *Marie, Mère de grâce* (ibid. 1922). Of a different kind is the witty little work: *Les contresens bibliques des prédicateurs* (4th ed., ibid. 1924; Italian trans. by A. Alfieri, Siena 1899).
The principal qualities of Bainvel as a theologian—sound doctrine, nuanced judgment, and a restrained yet unaffected unction—also secured his authority as an ascetical writer. Several of his works were reprinted and translated: *La dévotion au S. Coeur de Jésus - Doctrine et histoire* (Paris 1906; Italian trans., Milan 1917); *Le Saint Coeur de Marie - Vie intime de la S.le Vierge* (Paris 1918; Italian trans., Vicenza 1921). He wrote a long and highly esteemed theological introduction for the 10th edition of Fr. A. Poulain’s *Les grâces d'oraison* (Paris 1922). His love for his native land led him to take an interest in another writer, Fr. V. Huby (d. 1903), whose *Ecrits spirituels* he edited in a new edition (2 vols., Paris 1931–32), following the biography by Fr. P. Champion: *Vie des Fondeurs des maisons de retraites, M. de Kerlivio, Le p. Vincent Huby, M.le de Franchaville* (ibid. 1929). Finally, there is his brief but dense essay: *La vie intime du catholique* (4th ed., Paris 1916; Italian trans. by V. Bortolaso, Turin 1936).