GARET (Garetius), JEAN. - Theologian, b. at Louvain at the beginning of the 16th century, d. in 1571. Having become a Regular Canon of St. Augustine, he subsequently served as spiritual director of two convents of nuns near Antwerp and at Ghent.
An ardent devotee of the sacred sciences, he wrote with abundant learning and perfect orthodoxy: De vera praesentia corporis Christi in sacramento Eucharistiae (Antwerp 1651), which, enlarged with new treatises, he republished under different titles in 1563 and 1569; this source was used by A. ARNALDISTI (v.) and P. Nicolò in compiling the celebrated Perpétuité de la foi catholique touchant l'Eucharistie: De mortuis vivorum precibus iuvandis (Antwerp 1564); De invocazione Sanctorum (Ghent 1570). G.’s works are cited with honor by Bellarmine and other distinguished controversialists.
BIBL. Hurter, II, col. 13; I. Forget, s. V. in D'ThC. VI, cols. 1158-60; P. Polman, L'élément historique dans la controverse religieuse du XVIIe siècle, Gembloux 1932, pp. 251-52 (note G.’s exaggerated insistence in affirming the absolute invariability of dogma). Antonio Pislanti