DELATTRE, ALFRED-LOUIS. - Archaeologist, b. at Deville in the diocese of Rouen on 26 June 1850, d. at Carthage on 11 Jan. 1932. He entered the Missions of the White Fathers in Africa in 1874, and, sent shortly afterwards to Carthage by Card. Lavigerie, from that time made the ancient African metropolis his residence and the field, besides that of his religious ministry, also of his archaeological research. His name is in fact linked to the exploration of Carthage, and in particular of its Christian memorials. To him are due the discovery and excavation of the vast complex of Damus-el-Karita, then of the other basilicas of St. Cyprian and of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity (or basilica maiorum), as well as of Punic tombs and pagan monuments, such as the amphitheatre, the so-called wall of the amphorae, etc.
From the numerous finds there arose, in the same house of the White Fathers near the Primatial church, the Lavigerie Museum, which in its three sections, Punic, Roman and Christian, illustrates the whole secular history of the city. D. edited its catalogue, published in the series of the Catalogues des musées de l'Algérie et de la Tunisie (Paris 1899-1900). He devoted other writings to the illustration of the many excavations he had carried out; one to the Lampes chrétiennes, published at intervals first in the Missions catholiques (1880), then in the Revue de l'art chrétien (1890-92) and in part republished as a separate fascicle; another, occasioned by the discovery of some interesting Carthaginian reliefs, on Le culte de la Ste Vierge en Afrique d'après les monuments archéologiques, Paris-Lille s. d. [1907]. The critical rigour of these writings does not always equal the fervour that D. had displayed in his research. D. died at Carthage, after having seen the Christian resurrection of the city, which he had pursued with such ardour, crowned by the International Eucharistic Congress of 1930. He was a corresponding member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and of the Pontifical Academy of Archaeology (v. G. P. Kirsch, in Riv. arch. crist., 9 [1932], p. 159 ff.).