DELEHAYE, HIPPOLYTE. - Jesuit and Bollandist, distinguished renewer of the science of hagiography, b. at Antwerp (Belgium) on 19 Aug. 1859, d. at Brussels on 1 April 1941. Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1876 at Aarlon, he studied letters at Tronchienne and from 1879 to 1882 philosophy at Louvain. At the Jesuit College of Ghent he taught between 1882 and 1885 the Flemish language, mathematics and chemistry, and was director of the choir.
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 for work, so that Fr. Constant Van Aken, struck by his talent, directed him toward the path of historical research. Thus, taking his inspiration from 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 said: « I desire that the traditional biographies of our great scholastics follow the contemporary progress of criticism and of the historical method », D. began a study on 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 research in the archives of Ghent and of 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, was setting his eyes on D., another had forestalled him: Charles De Smedt, on the recommendations of Fr. Van Aken.
Under the direction of De Smedt, D. made his entry into the world of scholarship with a critical work on Gilbert of Gembloux and the legate Peter 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, for the specific formation of theological studies, parallel to that of historical research, to Innsbruck, where L. von Pastor and H. Grisar shone; but he remained there only for the academic year 1886-87. It seems that the harsh climate of the Tyrol did not suit D.'s health, so that he was recalled to Belgium, where he resumed the teaching of mathematics, with an advanced course at the Collège St-Michel in Brussels.
The year 1887 was the decisive year of D.'s scholarly life, since, entering the society of the Bollandists, he found there his true environment. 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 other 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 priest on 24 Aug. 1890, after his final examination in theology, he returned on 4 Jan. 1891 to the "Museum Bollandianum."
His first work 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 time when Krumbacher founded the Byzantinische Zeitschrift (1892) and drew into his orbit young men such as A. Ehrhard and Pio Franchi de' Cavalieri. From 1891 De Smedt was pondering the project of a Bibliotheca hagiographica Graeca, carried out by D. in 1894-95 (second edition in 1909 with a Synopsis Metaphrastica). In 1896 D. began his research on Greek hagiography, which yielded the publication of several catalogues of Greek manuscripts existing in the libraries of Europe, Asia Minor and Egypt, but above all the critical edition of the Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae e codice Sirmondiano nunc
Berolinensi, adiectis synaxariis selectis (Propylaeum ad acta SS. Novembri, Brussels 1902), which has been judged a true masterpiece.
In 1897 D. made 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, in the Revue des questions historiques (new series, 74 [1903], pp. 56-122) there appeared a study on Les légendes hagiographiques, which went through three editions as a separate volume (Bruxelles 1905, 1906, 1927) and was translated into Italian (Florence 1906, 1910), English (London 1907) and German (Kempten 1907). The subject, of fundamental importance for hagiographic 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 claimed to present the martyrs of Christ as successors of the demigods, had as its supplement Sanctus. Essai sur le culte des saints dans l'antiquité (ibid. 1927).
On the death of De Smedt on 19 Feb. 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 D.'s activity crowned. But instead he was able even to bring to completion another bold work, 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: Cinq leçons sur la méthode hagiographique (ibid. 1934), combating in the chapter Les reliques des saints recent abuses of false relics; the other: Etude sur le Légendier Romain. Les saints de novembre et de décembre (ibid. 1936), concerned with the sound criticism of the saints to be treated in the last months of the Acta SS. D.'s chief merit is that he knew how to profit from the arid lists, often so profoundly confused and altered, of the Hieronymian Martyrology and of the Synaxaria; he demonstrated how the first Christian generations honoured the martyrs of Christ, venerating their tombs and celebrating their solemn commemoration on their anniversaries. The tomb and the commemoration were the two "hagiographic coordinates" of D. (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, first among hagiographers, he constantly sought the authentic monumental testimonies of local traditions, making admirable use of every archaeological discovery. In each of his writings he made good use of and brought into prominence the factual elements of the veneration of the martyrs' tombs, that is, the basilicas and oratories built over their tombs, the honorific or votive inscriptions, the reliquaries, the testimonies of pilgrims and their graffiti, the symbolism of their images and even the place names attesting their patronage. D.'s activity in Greek-Byzantine and Latin hagiography is documented by the 239 items that constituted his bibliography (cf. Peeters, pp. XXXVIII-121). His scholarly work was so esteemed by Pius XI that at the creation of the Historical Section of the S. Congregation of Rites (1930), he numbered him among the first Consultors.