BUCK, VICTOR de. — Jesuit, born at Audenarde (Belgium) on 24 April 1817, died at Brussels on 23 May 1876; he entered the Society of Jesus in 1835. Having completed his philosophy course, from 1840 to 1845 he was assigned to the re-established college of the Bollandists. After completing his theology at Louvain, in 1850 he returned to the Bollandists, to whom he devoted throughout his life every strength of his keen and profound intellect and his exceptionally retentive memory. His hagiographical work began in 1845 in vol. VII of the October Acta Sanctorum with 16 learned commentaries; during his theological studies he continued with an extensive work in defence of the regular clergy, who had been attacked by a professor at Louvain; he continued in vols. IX–XIII of the October Acta and in very numerous doctrinal publications on various subjects, including the reunion of the Churches (Anglican and Russian) and other controversial fields. His relations with Anglicans and liberal Catholics caused him serious bitterness as a result of strong accusations, which he was able to dispel. He encountered no fewer difficulties over the valuable work De phialis rubricatis quibus martyrum romanorum sepulcra dignosci dicuntur observationes (Brussels 1855), that is, ampoules containing a reddish sediment said to indicate in the catacombs the tomb of a martyr (v. SANGUE). Although he admitted that ampoules containing real blood could be signs of martyrdom, he demonstrated that many had contained not blood but another liquid, such as remains of Eucharistic blood or of an offering. The various accusations of which he was the victim did not shake the confidence of his superiors, who summoned him to Rome to the First Vatican Council as a theologian.
(from J. Horkin, Travaux en Afghanistan, in Revue des arts asiatiques, 1938)
BUDDHA – The B. Dipankara and the young Brahman student Megha Schiste (11th–12th century A.D.). – Kabul, museum.
blood. Memoria inedita con introduzione storica..., edited by A. Ferrua, Città del Vaticano 1944, pp. xli ff., 154 ff. Agostino Tesio