BERTHIER, JOACHIM. — Born on 31 Dec. 1848 at Talloires near Annecy (Savoia), died on 21 Dec. 1924 at Fribourg (Switzerland). Educated at the college of La Roche, having felt a priestly vocation he first entered the seminary of Annecy and then that of Fribourg before joining the Order of the Friars Preachers on 13 Feb. 1872; ordained priest in 1874 in the cathedral of Avignon, he served as lecturer in theology and church history at the college of Carpentras. Called to Rome in 1880, he collaborated on the complete and critical edition of the scholarly works of St Thomas Aquinas and, having settled at Santa Sabina, made it the centre of his spiritual and intellectual labours. Author of numerous writings of a theological, historical and literary character, he later went to Fiesole and Florence, whence he returned to Fribourg from 1890 to 1905, where he was one of the founders of that Catholic University.
He returned to Santa Sabina in 1906, becoming, in the words of Pope Pius XI at the announcement of his death, “the guiding genius” of the place, and was not satisfied until 1914 when he secured the start of works to restore and revive the ancient title and the adjoining Dominican convent; the basilica having been reopened to the public in June 1919, he departed once more for Fribourg, where he died.
His principal works are: *Summa de donis s. Joseph*, newly edited by Fr Isidoro (Rome 1887); *B. Humberti de Romanis Quinti Praedicatorum Magistri Generalis opera de Vita Regulari* (ibid. 1888, 2 vols.); *Vita di Papa Innocenzo XI* (ibid. 1889); *Mystica Theologia Divi Thomae* (Turin 1890); *B. Iordanis de Saxonia, alterius Praedicatorum Magistri opera, ad res ordinis Praedicatorum spectantia, quae exstant collecta ac denuo edita* (Fribourg 1891); *Projets anciens des hautes études catholiques en Suisse. Preliminaires de l'Université de Fribourg* (ibid. 1891); *La porte de Ste-Sabine à Rome* (ibid. 1892); *Tabulae Symboli, notitiae totius Summae theologicae s. Thomae Aquinatis*, 2nd ed. ibid. 1892; *Une page d'art chrétien : Les sept oeuvres de charité corporelle illustrées par les Della Robbia* (ibid. 1893); *Lettres de Jean-François Bonomio, Nonce Apostolique en Suisse* (ibid. 1894); *Le tombeau de s. Dominique* (Paris 1895); *Le bienheureux Humbert de Romans cinquième Général de l'ordre des Frères-Prêcheurs* (Lyon 1895); *Praefatio ad Vitas Fratrum Ord. Praed. fr. Gerardi de Frachetto* (Laviano 1896); *La vie de s. Dominique peinte par le P. Besson* (Toulouse 1896); *Maître Thomas et s. Ignace* (Laviano 1896); *La Divina Commedia di Dante con Commenti secondo la Scolastica* (Fribourg 1897); *Le triomphe de s. Thomas peint dans la chapelle des Espagnols à Florence* (ibid. 1897); *Le r.p. A. Danzas O.P. Ses oeuvres artistiques* (St-Étienne 1897); *Tractatus de locis theologicis* (Turin 1903); *L'Eglise de la Misere à Rome* (Rome 1903); *L'Eglise de Ste-Sabine à Rome* (ibid. 1910); *Le Couvent de Ste Sabine à Rome* (ibid. 1912); *Le Chapitre de s. Nicolò de Trévoux. Peintures de Tommaso da Modena* (ibid. 1912); *Il Catechismo del B. Angelico* (ibid. 1915); *Chroniques du monastère de S. Sisto et de S. Domenico e Sisto à Rome*, 2 vols. (Levanto 1912); *La Divine Comédie, Traduction littérale avec notes* (Fribourg 1922).
BERTHIER, JOACHIM — Portrait.