BUTLER, ALBAN. - English hagiographer, b. at Appletree in the county of Northampton on 24 Oct. 1710, d. at St-Omer (France) on 15 May 1773. He studied at the English college of Douai (France), where in 1735 he received priestly ordination. There, afterward, he taught philosophy and theology. In 1745 he traveled in France and in Italy, then worked for some time as a missionary in his homeland. He was appointed president of the English seminary at St-Omer, first directed by the Jesuits, then expelled by the French government.
B. wrote several works, but is famous especially for The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints, the fruit of over 25 years of work. It is a popular collection of lives of saints according to the order of the calendar. It was published without the author's name and without his notes, in 5 vols., in London in the years 1754-59. After his death many editions were made, with the author's notes: thus at Dublin 1779-80, Edinburgh 1798-1800. The later editions were always updated. The last English edition is that of H. Thurston (and collaborators N. Celston and D. Attwater), London 1926-1938 in 12 vols. D. Attwater compiled the general index, London 1938.
The translations were also numerous. These increasingly modified B.'s original work by adding new saints and especially national saints not named in the English work. The first translation was the French one of Godescard (Paris 1763-1788), followed by numerous other editions printed in France (e.g., Versailles 1818-1820), in Belgium (Louvain 1828-33, Brussels 1854), etc. B.'s work was also translated into German (Mainz 1823-27) and into Spanish. The Italian translations were made from the French ones (Venice 1823-26, in 20 vols.; ibid. 1837-63 in 15 vols.); the last volumes, however, of these editions are nothing but appendices: thus vol. XIII of the last edition contains another treatise by B.: Feste mobili, digiuni ed altre osservanze annuali della Chiesa Cattolica (a posthumous work published in 1774 under the title Movable Fests and Fasts); vol. XV contains among other things the indexes and the life of B.
An English compendium was also translated into Italian: Le feste del Signore e della B. Vergine, opera originale inglese... (4 vols., Monza 1833).
B.'s life was written by his nephew Charles Butler, An Account of the Life and Writings of the Rev. A. B., (London 1799. In Italian in vol. XX of the ed. of Venice 1826, pp. 3-61, in vol. XV of the ed. of Venice 1863, pp. 99-131).
Bibliography3 works
Cesario van Hulst