BOERO, GIUSEPPE. - Jesuit hagiographer and historian, b. at Ventimiglia on 15 Aug. 1814, d. at Rome on 8 Feb. 1884. After his theological studies, he was attached to the general curia of his Order as archivist and general postulator, then (1876-83) as assistant for the provinces of Italy. In 1870 he attended the Vatican Council as theologian to Msgr. Miège, missionary bishop of the United States.
An indefatigable writer, B. knew how to make the most of the opportunities offered him by his duties as archivist and postulator. In his no fewer than 84 publications, the form may be a little affected and uniform, the criticism sometimes too hasty, but the documentation is first-hand. He wrote first of all a long series of biographies, based on the acts of the beatification processes: Vita del ven. p. Bernardino Realino (Rome 1852); Istoria della vita del v. p. Giuseppe M. Pignatelli (ibid. 1856); Vita del p. Pietro Canisio (ibid. 1864), etc. He edited the reprint, more or less revised, of classic hagiographic works by Frs. Cepari, Ribadeneira, Bartoli and Spinola. In his last years (1874-80) he published a series of biographical sketches on the first companions of St. Ignatius, Bl. Peter Faber, Frs. Laínez, Salmerón, Le Jay, Broët, Bobadilla, Rodríguez. From the archives of the Society, he brought out and set in light documents and unpublished works of Paolo Segneri, of St. B. Realino, of Bartoli. He was also entrusted with the official reprint of the Institutum Societatis Iesu (3 vols., Rome 1869-70). B. had taken part in two controversies of a thoroughly historical character, with apologetic works for the Society: Sentimenti e fatti del p. Silvestro Pietrasanta in difesa di s. Giuseppe Calasanzio e dell'Ordine delle scuole pie (ibid. 1847, French translation by Fr. Grandidier) against Canon Timon-David, of Marseille, and Osservazioni sopra l'istoria del pontificato di Clemente XIV scritta dal p. A. Theiner, prete dell'Oratorio (Modena 1853; 2nd ed., 2 vols., ibid. 1854).
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Edmondo Lamalle