CHERUBINO di SAN GIUSEPPE. — French Discalced Carmelite, in the world Alessandro de Boria, born on 5 August 1639 in Martel (Lot) and died in Bordeaux on 4 April 1725. A biblical scholar, he taught philosophy and theology for many years in the colleges of his province (Aquitaine), where he was several times prior and provincial, as well as visitor of other French provinces. Until his death he distinguished himself by his rigorous observance of the rule and his indefatigable study.
Fr. Marziale, his contemporary, places his death in 1725 (Bibl. script. c. d., p. 81); however, in the same work (p. 95), he states that he died after the printing of the first sheet of vol. VIII of his Summa criticae sacrae (published in 1716). The works he published show him to have been a man of immense erudition and the utmost diligence. One of these works is the Bibliotheca criticae sacrae, a kind of biblical archaeology, of which the author had promised 12 folio volumes, whereas only 4 volumes appeared (I–II, Louvain 1704; III–IV, Brussels 1705–1706). Prevented by the war in Belgium from continuing the printing of this grandiose work, Fr. C. undertook another, which provides students of Holy Scripture with the aids necessary for exegesis: his Summa criticae sacrae, printed in Bordeaux in the years 1709–16 (9 vols.). But this work too, a kind of introduction to Holy Scripture, remained incomplete. He left many other works unpublished on the various texts and versions of Holy Scripture, commentaries on certain sacred books, and so forth.