Giry, François

GIRY, FRANÇOIS. - Minim, writer, historian, hagiographer and mystic. B. in Paris on 15 Sept. 1638, d. there on 29 Nov. 1688. Of a noble family (his father was one of the first members of the French Academy), having overcome serious opposition from his family he entered the Minims, professing their Rule on 30 Nov. 1653. He studied theology under the direction of Fr. Barré (v.), whose most effective supporter he later became, once he had himself become provincial, in the founding of schools, and he was the first successor in the direction of the Institute.

He wrote valuable ascetical works, e.g.: Traité de la 1st Enfance de N. S. J. Christ (Paris 1670); Entretiens de J. Christ avec l'âme chrétienne (ibid. 1674); Livre des cent points de l'humanité (ibid. 1679). Among the historical works to be remembered: the Dissertatio chronologica de anno natali et aetate s. Francisci de Paula (ibid. 1680), to correct an erroneous judgment of the Bollandist Fr. Papebroch. The best-known work is Les vies des Saints (2 vols. in-fol., Paris 1683-85), which had very numerous editions down to our own day and which was taken as the basis of the collection Les petites Bollandistes, published in Paris, under the editorship of P. Guérin (17th ed., 1876).

Gennaro Moretti