GRANDMAISON, LÉONCE de. - Jesuit, theologian and apologist, b. at Le Mans on 31 Dec. 1868, d. at Paris on 15 June 1927. He entered the Society of Jesus (1886) already with the never again flagging intention of defending with his pen and with his books the Church and Jesus Christ against the assaults of unbelief and of rationalism in its various forms and phases; for this he was later to be served by his open mind, his constant application, and the profound knowledge he acquired of theology, of the history of religions, and of psychology. A professor of apologetic theology at Fourvière, Canterbury, and Ore Place, he was called to the editorial staff of the Etudes in 1908. From that year to 1919 he assumed its direction; and already in 1910 he founded the Recherches de science religieuse, as a technical and scientific supplement to the Etudes, directing it until his death. An indefatigable worker, he took part in all the liveliest and thorniest doctrinal questions of his time, especially the Modernist ones.
Of his very numerous writings, spread through the Etudes, the Recherches, the Revue pratique d'apologétique, the Revue d'ascétique et mystique, etc., and of his books, those especially to be remembered for their exquisite sense of measure and their serene understanding of the human soul are: La religion personnelle (Paris 1927; Italian trans. Brescia 1927); La crise de la Foi chez les jeunes (Paris 1927), both precious studies in religious psychology; Le dogme chrétien, sa nature, ses formules, son développement (ibid. 1928), Écrit spirituel (3 vols., posthumous, ibid. 1933-35), conferences, retreats, and tridua, reduced to outlines, given from 1912 to 1927 at the Association of St. Francis Xavier, which he founded among ladies desirous of the apostolate. But the principal work, to which he devoted his whole life, studying, researching and reworking the material and lavishing upon it not only his learning but all his love and his piety, was Jésus-Christ, sa personne, ses messages, ses preuves (2 vols., posthumous, edited by J. Lebreton, ibid. 1928), already prepared by the article Jésus-Christ, in DFC, II (1914), coll. 1288-1538, and by the volume Jésus-Christ dans l'histoire et dans le mystère (Paris 1927). The work is not, strictly speaking, a "life" of Jesus; but it is apologetic in nature and seeks to answer Jesus' question to the Apostles: "Who do you say that I am?", examining and discussing the sources for the life of the Savior, the environment in which he lived, the religion he proclaimed, the nature of his person, and the proofs he adduced to demonstrate his own assertions. Into this logical and classical scheme de Grandmaison poured his full knowledge of the subject, shirking nothing of what had been said against it, examining everything with acumen and completeness. The work went through many editions and translations; Fr. J. Huby published an abridged edition of it (Paris 1930; Italian trans. Brescia 1944).