DEHARBE, JOSEPH. — Jesuit, born at Strasbourg in Alsace on 1 April 1800, died at Maria Laach on 8 November 1871. A professor at Briga and at the seminary of Lucerne, with some intervals devoted to preaching, he soon became convinced of the pressing need for a catechism better suited to the needs of the time, simpler and more popular; accordingly, following closely the best models and especially the texts of s. Pietro Canisio, although dividing the material differently, he published anonymously his Katholischer Katechismus (Ratisbona 1847), developed in four different forms, for children, pupils in the various types of schools, and adults.
The work immediately received universal approval; that same year and in subsequent years it was adopted as the official text in many dioceses of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, and the United States of America. This multiplied the editions, with or without the author’s name, and the translations; both the former and the latter underwent ever-new adaptations and revisions, down to our own day. The merits of the work, in addition to theological accuracy, are brevity and precision of expression, clarity, and order.
D. later completed his catechetical work with the Erklärung des katholischen Katechismus (4 vols., to which he wished to add a fifth: Religionsgeschichte, a concise history of the Church, which at the same time amounts to a lucid demonstration of its divine origin [Ratisbona 1857–61]); he subsequently reduced it to an epitome with Kürzeres Handbuch für Religionsunterricht (2 vols., there 1865–68). Among the many Italian translations of his works, noteworthy is that of the Erklärung, under the title Spiegazione del catechismo grande, illustrated with examples and arranged according to the order of the Catechismo of Pio X, edited by G. Perardi (6 vols., Roma 1908–1909).
Among his other ascetical works, the following should be recalled: Examen ad usum cleri (Ratisbona 1849) and Die Vollkommene Liebe Gottes (there 1856).
BBL.: Sommervogel, II, coll. 1875–84; IX, coll. 182–84; F. X. Thalhofer, Entwicklung der kath. Katech. in Deutschland von Canttner bis D., Friburgo in Br. 1899; J. Linde, Der mittlere D. sche Katech., als Versuch zur Lösung der Katechismusfrage neu bearbeitet, mit einer hist.-krit. Abhandlung, Ratisbona 1900; id., s. V. in Lexch. der Pädagogik, I (1913), coll. 715–17. Celestino Testore