JANDEL, ALEXANDRE-VINCENT. — Dominican General, b. at Gerbévilliers (Lorraine) on 10 July 1810, d. at Rome on 11 Dec. 1872. Ordained priest in 1834 and professor of Sacred Scripture at the Seminary of Nancy, he was soon afterwards appointed rector of that of Pont-à-Mousson. Attracted by the noble figure of Fr. Lacordaire, he entered the Dominicans at the convent of La Quercia (Viterbo) in 1841, and two years later was already in France to cooperate in the noble enterprise of restoring the Order there. In 1850 he was called by Pius IX to Rome as Vicar General of the Order, and his first care was to transform the monastery of S. Sabina into a convent of strict observance, from which, so to speak, the disciplinary renewal of the others proceeded. In 1862 he was elected Master General.
A man of government, an able administrator, of profound interior life, he devoted himself to creating almost a new life in the Order: he restored several provinces, opened a great number of houses, promoted the study of the doctrine of St. Thomas, cooperated in the new editions of the Dominican liturgical books and of the Constitutions partly modified, propagated the Third Order and the associations of the Rosary and of the Holy Name of Jesus. He took part in the Vatican Council, working with various prelates to counter the objections of the anti-infallibilists; he accepted for his Order the mission of Moussul, and obtained the union of the Dominican provinces of Spain with the Roman centre. For all this unremitting work J. is considered one of the greatest Generals of the Order.