GOUGAUD, LOUIS

GOUGAUD, LOUIS. — Benedictine historian, born on 14 June 1877 in Malestroit (Morbihan), died at the abbey of Farnborough on 24 March 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 remainder of his life, except for the brief period of the World War of 1914–18.

His scholarly activity, especially in the field of history, focused on research into the beginnings of Christianity among the Celts, monasticism, Irish ecclesiastical and monastic liturgy, and the influence exerted by Irish monks on the medieval culture of the European continent. In the field of liturgy, however, G. was among the pioneers who recognized the value of historical and patristic studies and used them wisely for the general history of the Church and, in particular, for Celtic studies. G. contributed many articles to various Catholic dictionaries and encyclopedias, including the DACL, the Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, the first three volumes of the DFC, and the DSp. Of his numerous publications, only the

the most important: Les chrétientés celtiques (London 1911; 2nd ed. there 1932); Gaelic pioneers in christianity (there 1923); Devotional and ascetic practices in the middle ages (there 1927); Ermites et reclus, études sur d'anciennes formes de vie religieuse (Ligué [Vienna] 1928); Anciens coutumes claustrales (there 1930); The achievements and the influence of Irish monks, in Studies, 20 (1931), pp. 154 ff., with preparatory work for a new Monasticon Hibernicum; Les saints irlandais hors d'Irlande (Louvain 1936).