GOUGAUD, LOUIS. - Benedictine historian, b. June 14, 1877 in Malestroit (Morbihan), d. in the abbey of Farnborough on March 24, 1941. Having entered the Benedictine Order in 1901, he was appointed in 1910 prior of the abbey of St. Michael at Farnborough (Hampshire, England), where he lived and worked for the rest of his life, except for the brief period of the World War of 1914-18.
His scholarly activity, especially in history, was devoted to research on the beginnings of Christianity among the Celts, on monasticism, on Irish ecclesiastical and monastic liturgy, and on the influence exercised by Irish monks on the medieval culture of the European continent. In the field of liturgy, however, G. was in the vanguard among those who recognized the value of historical and patristic studies and used them skillfully for the general history of the Church and for Celtic studies in particular. G. contributed many articles to various Catholic dictionaries and encyclopedias, such as the DACL, the Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, the first three volumes of the DFC, and the DSp. Of his numerous publications only the most important are cited:
Les chrétientés celtiques (London 1911; 2nd ed. ibid. 1932); Gaelic pioneers in christianity (ibid. 1923); Devotional and ascetic practices in the middle ages (ibid. 1927); Ermites et reclus, études sur d'anciennes formes de vie religieuse (Ligué [Vienna] 1928); Anciens coutumes claustrales (ibid. 1930); The achievements and the influence of Irish monks, in Studies, 20 (1931), p. 154 ff., with preparatory work for a new Monasticon Hibernicum; Les saints irlandais hors d'Irlande (Louvain 1936).
Bibliography
Lucchesio Spätling