Berthier, Joachim

BERTHIER, JOACHIM. - Born on 31 Dec. 1848 at Talloires near Annecy (Savoy), died on 21 Dec. 1924 at Fribourg (Switzerland). Educated at the college of La Roche, having received the priestly vocation he passed first to the seminary of Annecy and then to that of Fribourg in order to enter on 13 Feb. 1872 the Order of Friars Preachers; ordained a priest in 1874 in the cathedral of Avignon, he was a 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 scientific work of St. Thomas Aquinas, and having settled at S. Sabina he made it the center of his spiritual and intellectual work. The author of numerous writings of a theological, historical and literary character, he then went to Fiesole and to Florence, whence he returned to Fribourg from 1890 to 1905, where he was one of the founders of that Catholic University.

He returned to S. Sabina in 1906, of which he became, as it were, "the guardian genius," in the words of Pope Pius XI at the announcement of his death, and he was not content until he obtained in 1914 the beginning of the work of restoration and reinstatement of the ancient titular church and of the adjoining Dominican convent; once the basilica was reopened to the public in June 1919, he set off again for Fribourg, where he died.

His principal works are: Summa de donis s. Joseph, auctore fr. Isidoro denuo edita (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. Préliminaires de l'Université de Fribourg (ibid. 1891); La porte de Ste-Sabine à Rome (ibid. 1892); Tabulae Synopticae 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-Précheurs (Lyons 1895); Praefatio ad Vitas Fratrum Ord. Praed. fr. Gerardi de Fracheto (Louvain 1896); La vie de s. Dominique peinte par le p. Besson (Toulouse 1896); « Maître Thomas » et s. Ignace (Louvain 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-Etienne 1897); Tractatus de locis theologicis (Turin 1900); L'Eglise de la Minerve à Rome (Rome 1910); L'Eglise de Ste-Sabine à Rome (ibid. 1910); Le Couvent de Ste Sabine à Rome (ibid. 1912); Le Chapitre de s. Nicolò de Trévise. 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).

Enrico Josi