FILLION, LOUIS-CLAUDE. — Exegete, born at St-Bonnet-de-Joux (Saône et Loire, France) on 25 June 1843, died at Issy on 12 December 1927. At the Seminary of Autun he was a pupil of F. Vigouroux (v.). After his priestly ordination (1867), he became a Sulpician. From 1871 he taught for three years at the Major Seminary of Reims, and then at that of Lyon. From 28 July 1893 he taught biblical exegesis at the Institut catholique of Paris; from January 1903 he was a consultor to the Pontifical Biblical Commission. In October 1906 he left the chair, retiring to the Seminary of Issy, where he devoted himself to biblical publications.
From 1878 he collaborated on Lethisileux’s Ste Bible; in 1886 he began publishing his excellent commentary: La Ste Bible selon la Vulgate avec traduction française et commentaire (8 vols., Paris 1903–1904). Among his numerous other works published in Paris, the most extensive are: Les miracles de N. S. Jésus-Christ (2 vols., 1909–10); Vie de N. S. Jésus-Christ (3 vols., 1922); Histoire d'Israël (3 vols., 1927). He composed biblical atlases on geography, archaeology, and the natural sciences, various apologetic writings, and biographies of St Peter and St John. He collaborated on the Dictionnaire de la Bible and on various periodicals. Always faithful to the strictest orthodoxy, in his later works F. does not appear to have kept abreast of the rapid progress of biblical scholarship.