CEILLIER, REMI. – Benedictine of the Lorraine Congregation of St-Venne and St-Hidulphe, born at Bar-le-Duc on 14 May 1688, died in the monastery of Flavigny on 26 May 1761, distinguished patrologist. After his studies at the Jesuit college of his native city, he became a Benedictine at 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 transferred to the priory of Flavigny-sur-Moselle, of which he was prior from 1733 until his death.
He composed his first work while teaching theology to his fellow religious at 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, encouraged him to begin a vast publication, whose first volume, which appeared in 1729, bore the following title, revealing the entire plan: General History of Sacred and Ecclesiastical Authors, Containing Their Lives, the Catalogue, Criticism, Judgment, Chronology, Analysis, and Transmission of the Various Editions of Their Works; What They Contain of Greatest Interest Concerning the Dogma, Morals, and Discipline of the Church; the History of Both General and Particular Councils and Selected Acts of the Martyrs. By sacred authors are to be understood the inspired writers of the Bible. From 1729 to 1763, 23 quarto volumes appeared in succession and carried the undertaking as far as the middle of the 13th century, the last author studied being Guillaume d’Alvernia. Pope Benedict XIV honored this colossal work with two laudatory briefs (1751 and 1753), and d. C. was able to continue it thanks to the collaboration of his fellow religious and also to earlier similar works, such as Elles Dupin’s Nouvelle bibliothèque des auteurs ecclésiastiques and Tillemont’s Mémoires. The work remained incomplete. A General Index, in 2 volumes, prepared by Rondet and Drouet, appeared in Paris in 1782. The learned Benedictine has been accused of Jansenist tendencies. These accusations are perhaps not entirely without foundation; but d. C.’s Jansenism is scarcely perceptible, and it seems that Benedict XIV did not notice II.