FOUARD, HENRI-CONSTANT. - Priest and biblical scholar, b. at Elbeuf (Rouen) on 6 Aug. 1837, d. there on 3 Dec. 1903. During his theological studies in Paris, at the Seminary of S. Sulpicio, he had as his teacher Abbé A. Le Hir, who introduced him and his fellow student F. Vigouroux to the biblical sciences, to which both subsequently devoted their entire lives. Having obtained a degree in letters in Paris in 1867, he was first professor of literature (1867–76) at Boisguillaume, then professor of Sacred Scripture at the Faculty of Theology in Rouen. A doctor of theology in 1877, he was appointed canon of Rouen Cathedral in 1884 and, in 1903, a member of the Biblical Commission.
The fruit of his studies, his travels in the East, and also of his piety, are the six volumes to which he gave the title Les origines de l'Église, and which he intended as a response to the works written on the same subject by E. Renan, likewise a pupil of Abbé Le Hir. The titles of the volumes are: Vie de N.-S. Jeans-Christ (a voll., Paris 1880); St Pierre et les premières années du christianisme (there 1886); St Paul et ses missions (there 1892); St Paul, ses dernières années (there 1897); St Jean et la fin de l'âge apostolique (posthumous; there 1904).
The work, which had many editions and translations (Italian trans., Turin 1909–14), is still esteemed and read for its very engagingly composed narrative, the accuracy of its information, and a vivid sense, one might say, of devotion. Its bibliography, however, has unfortunately remained unchanged.