Ceillier, Remi

CEILLIER, REMI. - Benedictine of the Lorraine Congregation of St-Vanne and St-Hidulphe, b. at Bar-le-Duc on 14 May 1688, d. in the monastery of Flavigny, on 26 May 1761, a distinguished patrologist. After his studies at the Jesuit college of his native city, he became a Benedictine in the monastery of Moyen-Moutier in the Vosges, at the age of 16. He remained there until 1718, when he became prior of St-Jacques de Neufchâteau; in 1724 he moved to the priory of Flavigny-sur-Moselle, of which he was prior from 1733 until his death.

He composed his first work, when he was teaching theology to the brethren of Moyen-Moutier from 1710 to 1716, and published it in 1718 under the title: Apologie de la morale des Pères contre les injustes accusations du sieur Jean Barbeyrac, professeur en droit et en histoire de Lausanne (Paris 1718). The success of this first writing, which attested to a serious knowledge of ecclesiastical history and theology, spurred him to begin a vast publication, whose first volume, which appeared in 1729, bore the following title, revealing the whole plan: General History of the Sacred and Ecclesiastical Authors, containing their life, the catalogue, the criticism, the judgment, the chronology, the analysis and the collation of the various editions of their works; what they contain of most interest on dogma, on morals and on the discipline of the Church; the history of both general and particular councils and the selected acts of the martyrs. Under the name of sacred authors, one must understand the inspired writers of the Bible. From 1729 to 1763, 23 volumes in 4to followed one another and carried the undertaking up to the middle of the 13th century, the last author studied being William of Auvergne. Pope Benedict XIV honored with two laudatory briefs (1751 and 1753) this colossal work, which d. C. was able to continue thanks to the collaboration of his brethren and also thanks to similar earlier works such as the Nouvelle bibliothèque des auteurs ecclésiastiques of Ellies Dupin and the Mémoires of Tillemont. The work has remained incomplete. A General Index, in 2 vols., prepared by Rondet and Drouet, appeared in Paris in 1782. The learned Benedictine has been accused of Jansenist tendencies. These accusations, perhaps, are not devoid of all foundation; but the Jansenism of d. C. is very little visible, and it appears that Benedict XIV did not notice it.

Martino Jugie