GRAFFIN, RENÉ. - Orientalist, b. at Pontvallain (Sarthe, France) on 22 March 1858, d. at Ste-Radegonde-en-Touraine on 3 Jan. 1941, after having given a decisive impulse in France to the study of the languages and literatures of the Christian East.
In Rome he completed his theological studies at the Pontifical French Seminary up to the priesthood; there he had, from as early as 1880, his vocation at once missionary and scientific: to make known to the Christians of the West and to the Eastern Churches themselves the patristic, hagiographic and liturgical treasures of the Oriental literatures. After a year of further study at Innsbruck, he returned to the Catholic Institute of Paris, where he founded (Oct. 1886) the course of Oriental Christian languages and literatures: Syriac, Arabic, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian and finally, in 1927, Georgian; in 1894 he began the publication of the Patrologia Syriaca, flanked (from 1907) by the Patrologia Orientalis, for which he had no fewer than 9 special Oriental typefaces designed, engraved and cast; in 1896 the Revue de l'Orient chrétien appeared as a quarterly supplement to the Oeuvre d'Orient. At the death of Msgr. G. the Patrologie numbered 28 vols. and the Revue 30 vols. In this immense work his principal and tireless collaborator was a former disciple of his, the priest F. Nau.
Bibliography2 worksL. Mariès, Mgr R. G., in Construire, 3 (1941), pp. 216-27; S. Grébaut, Un grand orientaliste: mgr R. G., in Revue de l'Orient chrétien, 30 (
BIBL.: L. Mariès, Mgr R. G., in Construire, 3 (1941), pp. 216-27; S. Grébaut, Un grand orientaliste: mgr R. G., in Revue de l'Orient chrétien, 30 (1946), pp. 225-30.
Lyonnet, Stanislao. “Graffin, rené.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI, col. 988. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/graffin-rene.
MLA
Lyonnet, Stanislao. “Graffin, rené.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, col. 988. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/graffin-rene.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec6_graffin_rene,
author = {Lyonnet, Stanislao},
title = {Graffin, rené},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VI},
pages = {988},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/graffin-rene}
}
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