DELEHAYE, HIPPOLYTE. — Jesuit and Bollandist, distinguished renewer of hagiographical scholarship, born in Antwerp (Belgium) on 19 August 1859, died in Brussels on 1 April 1941. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1876 at Aarlon, studied literature at Tronchienne and, from 1879 to 1882, philosophy at Louvain. At the Jesuit College of Ghent, between 1882 and 1885, he taught Flemish, mathematics, and chemistry and was choir director.
His first literary essay, Les plantes de la Bible, published in 1885 in the Précis historiques (34 [1885], pp. 353–72), revealed in him a spirit of initiative and an ease in working that Fr. Costantino Van Aken, struck by his talent, directed him toward historical research. Thus, inspired by an article by Fr. Ehrle, then prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, in the recently founded Archiv für Litteratur und Kirchengeschichte (1 [1885], pp. 365–401), which stated: « Desidero che le tradizionali biografie dei nostri grandi scolastici seguano i progressi contemporanei della critica e del metodo storico », D. began a study of the « doctor solemnis » Henry of Ghent: Nouvelles recherches sur Henri de Gand, in Messager des sciences historiques en Belgique, 60 (1886), pp. 328–55, 438–55; 61 (1887), pp. 59–85, confirming the superiority of Ehrle’s method. Then, after conducting research in the archives of Ghent and Tournai, he added: Notes sur Henri de Gand, ibid., 62 (1888), pp. 421–56. While Ehrle, who was then recruiting « writers » for the Vatican Library, had his eye on D., another had forestalled him: Carlo De Smedt, on the recommendation of Fr. Van Aken.
Under De Smedt’s direction, D. entered the scholarly world with a critical study of Gilbert of Gembloux and the papal legate Pietro of Pavia: Guibert, abbé de Florennes et Gembloux (in Revue des questions historiques, new series, 46 [1889], pp. 5–90); Pierre de Pavie, légat du pape Alexandre III en France (ibid., new series, 49 [1891], pp. 5–61); Le légat Pierre de Pavie
(from Analecta Bollandiana, 69, 1915)
DELEHAYE, HIPPOLYTE — Portrait with autograph signature.
chanoine de Chartres (ibid., new series, 51 [1892], pp. 244–252).
Meanwhile, D. was sent to Innsbruck for specialized theological studies, pursued in parallel with historical research, where L. von Pastor and H. Grisar were distinguished figures; but he remained there only for the academic year 1886–87. It seems that the harsh climate of Tyrol did not suit D.’s health, and so he was recalled to Belgium, where he resumed teaching mathematics, with an advanced course at St-Michel College in Brussels.
The year 1887 was decisive in D.’s scholarly life, since, upon entering the society of the Bollandists, he found his true milieu there. He made his debut in the Analecta Bollandiana with a Latin dissertation: Guiberti Gemblaensis epistula de S. Martino et alterius Guiberti item Gemblaensis carmina de eodem (in Analecta Bollandiana, 7 [1888], pp. 265–320), the first of 113 further articles. When he left in the autumn of 1888 for Louvain to continue the studies begun at Innsbruck, his future as a Bollandist was decided. Ordained a priest on 24 August 1890, after his final theology examination, he returned on 4 January 1891 to the « Museum Bollandianum ».
The first work of his as a Bollandist was the commentary on the life of St. Wolfgang: De S. Wolfango episcopo Ratisponensi (in Acta SS. Novembris, II, 1 [1894], pp. 527–97). Subsequently, he also turned his work to the Greek-Byzantine field, in which he soon became a master. It was the period in which Krumbacher founded the Byzantinische Zeitschrift (1892) and drew into his orbit young scholars such as A. Ehrhard and Pio Franchi de’ Cavalieri. From 1891 De Smedt had been considering the project of a Bibliotheca hagiographica Graeca, which D. carried out in 1894–95 (second edition in 1909 with a Synopsis Metaphrastica). In 1896 D. began his research on Greek hagiography, which led to the publication of several catalogues of Greek manuscripts held in the libraries of Europe, Asia Minor, and Egypt, but above all to the critical edition of the Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae e codice Sirmondiano nunc Berolinensi, adiectis synaxariis selectis (Propylaeum ad acta SS. Novembris, Brussels 1902), which has been judged a genuine masterpiece.
In 1897 D. came into contact with the Christian antiquities of Rome by publishing the profound and intuitive study Les saints du cimetière de Commodille (in Analecta Bollandiana, 16 [1897], pp. 17–43). For Roman hagiography, the study L’amphithéâtre Flavien et ses environs dans les textes hagiographiques (ibid., 16 [1897], pp. 209–52) marked an epoch. In 1903, a study on Les légendes hagiographiques appeared in the Revue des questions historiques (new series, 74 [1903], pp. 56–122); it subsequently had three editions in a separate volume (Brussels 1905, 1906, 1927) and was translated into Italian (Florence 1906, 1910), English (London 1907), and German (Kempten 1907). The subject, of fundamental importance for hagiographical criticism, was taken up again in 1921 with the volume Les Passions des martyrs et les genres littéraires. The study Les origines du culte des martyrs (Brussels 1912, 2nd ed. 1933), which forms a trilogy with the two preceding works and in which D. refuted with factual evidence the Protestant thesis of E. Lucius, who had sought to present the martyrs of Christ as successors of the demigods, was supplemented by Sanctus. Essai sur le culte des saints dans l’antiquité (ibid. 1927).
When De Smedt died on 19 February 1912, D. succeeded him as president of the society of the Bollandists. When, in 1931, the learned Commentarius perpetuus in Martyrologium Hieronymianum ad recensionem H. Quentin (Acta SS. Novembris, II, II, ibid.) appeared, one might have thought that D.’s activity had been crowned. Yet he was still able to complete another bold undertaking: the commentary on the Martyrologium Romanum ad formam editionis typicae scholiis historicis instructum, in the Propylaeum ad Acta SS. Decembris (ibid. 1940), and two studies, one entitled Cinq leçons sur la méthode hagiographique (ibid. 1934), in which, in the chapter Les reliques des saints, he combated recent abuses involving false relics; the other, Etude sur le Légendier Romain. Les saints de novembre et de décembre (ibid. 1936), concerned with sound criticism of the saints to be treated in the final months of the Acta SS. D.’s particular merit lies in having known how to draw profit from the dry lists, often so profoundly confused and corrupted, of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum and the Synaxaries; he demonstrated how the first Christian generations honored the martyrs of Christ, venerating their tombs and celebrating their solemn commemoration on their anniversaries. The tomb and the commemoration were D.’s two «hagiographical coordinates» (La méthode historique et l’hagiographie, in Bulletin de l’Académie royale de Belgique, 16 (1930), pp. 218–31). D. did not limit himself to literary sources, of which he was a profound connoisseur, but, the first among hagiographers, he constantly sought the authentic monumental evidence of local traditions, making admirable use of every archaeological discovery. In each of his writings he gathered and brought to light the factual elements of the veneration of the martyrs’ tombs: the basilicas and oratories built over their tombs, honorary or votive inscriptions, reliquaries, the testimonies of pilgrims and their graffiti, the symbolism of their images, and even the names of places attesting to their patronage. D.’s activity in Greek-Byzantine and Latin hagiography is documented by the 239 entries that constitute his bibliography (cf. Peeters, pp. XXXVIII–121). His scholarly work was so highly esteemed by Pius XI that, upon the creation of the Historical Section of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (1930), he appointed him one of its first Consultors.
BIBLI.: P. Peeters, Le X. pire H. D., in Analecta Bollandiana, 60 (1942), pp. 1–111 (with a complete bibliographical list); id., Figures bollandiennes contemporaines, Brussels 1948, pp. 60–105. To be added: C. Mohlberg, Il p. Ippolito D. S. I.: cinquant’anni di studi agiografici, in Rendicenti della Pontificia accademia romana di archeologia, 19 (1942–43), pp. 15–46; M. Scaduto, L’opera di un bollandista: il p. Ippolito D. (1859–1941), in Circ. Catt., 1943, 1, pp. 96–104, 168–76. V. BOLLANDISTI.