BERTHIER, JOACHIM

BERTHIER, JOACHIM. — Born on 31 December 1848 at Talloires near Annecy (Savoy), died on 21 December 1924 at Fribourg (Switzerland). Educated at the college of La Roche, after discovering his priestly vocation he first entered the seminary of Annecy and then that of Fribourg, in order to enter the Order of Preachers on 13 February 1872; ordained a priest in 1874 in the cathedral of Avignon, he was lecturer in theology and ecclesiastical history at the college of Carpentras. Called to Rome in 1880, he collaborated on the complete and critical edition of the scientific works of s. Thomas Aquinas and, having settled at S. Sabina, made it the center of his spiritual and intellectual work. The author of numerous theological, historical, and literary writings, he later went to Fiesole and Florence, from where he returned to Fribourg, where he remained from 1890 to 1905 and was one of the founders of that Catholic University.

He returned to S. Sabina in 1906, of which he became, as Pope Pius XI expressed it in announcing his death, « its guardian genius », and he was not content until he had obtained, in 1914, the beginning of restoration work and the reinstatement of the ancient title and adjoining Dominican convent; after the basilica was reopened to the public in June 1919, he departed 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 (there 1888, 2 vols.); Vita di Papa Innocenzo XI (there 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 (there 1891); La porte de Ste-Sabine à Rome (there 1892); Tabulae Synopticae totius Summae theologicae s. Thomae Aquinatis, 2nd ed. there 1892); Une page d'art chrétien: Les sept oeuvres de charité corporelle illustrées par les Della Robbia (there

1893); Lettres de Jean-François Bonomio, Nonce Apostolique en Suisse (ivi 1894); Le tombeau de s. Dominique (Parigi 1895); Le bienheureux Humbert de Romans cinquième Général de l'ordre des Frères-Précheurs (Lione 1895); Praefatio ad Vitas Fratrum Ord. Praed. fr. Gerardi de Fracheto (Lovanio 1896); La vie de s. Dominique peinte par le p. Besson (Tolosa 1896); « Maître Thomas » et s. Ignace (Lovanio 1896); La Divina Commedia di Dante con Commenti secondo la Scolastica (Friburgo 1897); Le triomphe de s. Thomas peint dans la chapelle des Espagnols à Florence (ivi 1897); Le r.p. A. Danzas O.P. Ses oeuvres artistiques (St-Etienne 1897); Tractatus de locis theologicis (Torino 1900); L'Eglise de la Minerve à Rome (Roma 1910); L'Eglise de Ste-Sabine à Rome (ivi 1910); Le Couvent de Ste Sabine à Rome (ivi 1912); Le Chapitre de s. Nicolò de Trévise. Peintures de Tommaso da Modena (ivi 1912); Il Catechismo del B. Angelico (ivi 1915); Chroniques du monastère de S. Sisto et de S. Domenico e Sisto à Rome, 2 voll. (Levanto 1912); La Divine Comédie, Traduction littérale avec notes (Friburgo 1922).