HAMON, ANDRÉ-JEAN-MARIE. - Sulpician, theologian, and preacher, b. at Le Pas (Mayenne) on 18 May 1795, d. at Paris on 16 Dec. 1874. Professor of theology at the Seminary of S. Sulpizio (1820–25), then rector of that of Bordeaux, also holding the title of vicar general (1825–51), he went on to govern, until his death, the parish of S. Sulpizio in Paris. He refused the bishoprics of Montauban and Mans.
The biographies Vie du card. de Cheverus (Paris 1837), Vie de Marie River (ibid. 1852), and above all the Vie de st François de Sales (2 vols., ibid. 1854; 39th ed., ibid. 1929), met with wide favour and had numerous editions and translations, owing to the accuracy of their research and composition and to the quite distinctive unction with which the facts are presented. Equally well-deserved, and still retained, was the success of the Méditations pour tous les jours de l'année (3 vols., ibid. 1872; 150th thousand, ibid. 1929; Italian trans., 4 vols., Turin 1918). Also worthy of mention are: Traité de la prédication (Paris 1846); Notre-Dame de France, ou Histoire du culte de la ste Vierge en France (7 vols., ibid. 1861–66); and Retraites pastorales (2 vols., posthumous, ibid. 1889).