LAMY, THOMAS-JOSEPH. – Biblical exegete and Orientalist, b. at Ohey (Belgium) on 27 Jan. 1827, d. at Louvain on 30 July 1907. He taught biblical exegesis and Oriental languages at the University of Louvain from 1875 to 1900. He succeeded Mgr. Th. Beelen; upon his retirement from teaching he was succeeded by Fr. Ladeuze and A. Van Hoonacker. A distinguished polygraph, Lamy took learned and vigorous part in the controversy against E. Renan.
His *Introduction aux Écritures Saintes* (Malines 1867; 6th ed. ibid. 1901) was highly esteemed and widely circulated. Lamy’s chief merit was to keep alive within the University of Louvain the tradition of Oriental studies. He contributed to the founding of the Louvain school of patristics by publishing, albeit with little critical apparatus, the works of St. Ephrem and other texts of Eastern patrology.
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