ILARIO da BARENTON. - Capuchin writer and scholar of the Province of Paris, born 28 February 1864; already a priest and parish assistant, he entered the novitiate on 2 August 1891; he died in Paris on 24 February 1946.
A professor of sacred disciplines, he defended dogmatic and biblical doctrine against modernism; through polemical pamphlets, journals, and associations he championed the right of religious Orders to exist against the French expulsion laws; he illustrated French Franciscan and Capuchin history through articles and monographs. He distinguished himself above all in studies of ancient civilizations through personal research worthy of attention, though debated. In numerous monographs, collected in the Collection d'études orientales (1-10, Paris 1920-37), the Collection d'études orientales et bibliques (1-3, ibid. 1923-25), and the Collection de sciences et découvertes modernes (1-6, ibid. 1935-46), he examines with new solutions the problems concerning the origin of languages, religions, and peoples, and the diffusion of civilization in the Mediterranean world. The breadth of his learning offers, alongside certain reservations, many elements capable of further development.
Ilarino da Milano