CHERUBINO of SAINT JOSEPH. — Discalced Carmelite friar of French nationality, born Alessandro de Boria, he was 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 to other French provinces. Until his death he distinguished himself by his rigorous observance of the Rule and indefatigable study.
Father Martial, his contemporary, records 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 critica sacra (published in 1716). The works he published show him to have been a man of immense erudition and great diligence. One of these works is the Biblioteca critica sacra, a kind of biblical archaeology, for which the author had promised 12 volumes in-folio, though only 4 volumes appeared (I–II, Louvain 1704; III–IV, Brussels 1705–1706). Prevented, by reason of the war in Belgium, from continuing the printing of this vast work, Father C. undertook another, providing scholars of Holy Scripture with the necessary aids for exegesis by publishing in Bordeaux between 1709 and 1716 his Summa critica sacra (9 volumes). Yet this work too, a kind of introduction to Holy Scripture, remained incomplete. He left many other unpublished works on various texts and versions of Holy Scripture, commentaries on certain sacred books, etc.