BROU, ALEXANDRE. - French Jesuit, writer and missiologist, b. 26 Apr. 1862 at Chartres, d. at Laval on 12 March 1947. After his studies, largely completed in England because of the expulsion of the Jesuits from France, he was assigned to the literary and spiritual formation of his young confreres at Canterbury (1894-97, 1907-10 and 1920-23), Jersey (1902-1906 and 1911-19) and Laval (1899-1901 and 1924). At the same time he carried on a prolific activity as a writer and, from 1909, collaborated with the Parisian Jesuit review Les Études, of whose editorial board he became a member in 1927, settling in Paris.
In his multifaceted output, some volumes are the fruit of his teaching, e.g. Le Dix-huitième Siècle littéraire (3 vols., Paris 1923-27). But his greatest activity concerns questions of missiology or missionary history. His biography St François Xavier (2 vols., Paris 1912; 2nd ed., ibid. 1923) remains highly esteemed, to which were added: Vie populaire de st Fr. Xavier (2nd ed., Toulouse 1914); St Fr. Xavier. Conditions et méthodes de son apostolat (Bruges 1925); S. Fr. Xavier. Lettres spirituelles (Paris 1937). Furthermore: Les Jésuites missionnaires au XIXe siècle (Brussels 1905), later taken up in Jésuites missionnaires: Un siècle (Paris 1924, in collaboration with Fr. G. Gibert) and in Cent ans de missions. Les Jésuites missionnaires au XIXe siècle (ibid. 1935). In a very different genre: Xaverins. Essai de directoire ascétique à l'usage des missionnaires de la Compagnie de Jésus (Toulouse 1930). In Études, Fr. B.'s particular field was always that of the missions, especially of India and China.
He also wrote about his Order: Les Jésuites de la légende. Des origines à Pascal. De Pascal à nos jours (2 vols.,
Paris 1906-1907), which links up with his literary studies; Les Jésuites morts pour la France (ibid. 1921); La Compagnie de Jésus (ibid. 1924) and several biographies: Un Jésuite breton. Le p. Edouard Marquet (ibid. 1913); Un soldat de la Croix, Le p. Marc Barthélemy, missionnaire dans l'Afrique du Sud (ibid. 1917); Le p. Paul Aucler, aumônier militaire (ibid. 1937, in collaboration with Fr. F. Gibert).
The following three works, thoroughly matured, are at once historical and ascetical in character: La spiritualité de s. Ignace (Paris 1914); Les Exercices Spirituels de s. Ignace. Histoire et psychologie (ibid. 1922); S. Ignace maître d'oraison (ibid. 1925).
Finally, outside this series, let us mention the two hagiographic booklets: S. Augustin de Cantorbéry, Paris 1897; Travail et prière. S. Marie-Madeleine-Sophie Barat (ibid. 1923) and a small volume of meditations, Au puit de Jacob (Tournai 1922).
Bibliography
Edmondo Lamalle