He entered the Society of Jesus on 14 Sept. 1887 and immediately displayed a remarkable facility for languages; before completing his theological studies he taught classical languages and Hebrew and taught himself Armenian and Russian. Ordained priest in 1901 and having completed his studies, he spent some time in Syria, both for health reasons and to learn Arabic. In 1905 he was attached to the Bollandist College, where for more than 45 years he devoted himself to extensive and profound research and to numerous hagiographical publications concerning Georgia (St Romanus, Porphyrius of Gaza, Hilarion of Iberia, Serapion of Zarzma, St Nino, etc.), Holy Armenia (St Šoušanik the Martyr, St Gregory the Illuminator, etc.), Persia (St Eleutherius-Guhistazad, St Simeon, Archbishop of Seleucia, the Passionarium of Adiabene, St Golinduch the Martyr, etc.), Syria (SS Simeon Stylites the Elder and the Younger, St Thomas of Emesa), Egypt, and Byzantium. In 1930 he was chosen as a consultor of the Sacred Congregation of Rites for the historical section; in 1933 he became a member of the Royal Belgian Academy; in 1941 he succeeded Fr H. Delehaye as director of the Bollandist College; in 1942 he was appointed a member of the Roman Academy of Archaeology. In 1946 the University of Strasbourg conferred upon him an honorary doctorate in theology; in 1947 the University of Louvain
(fot. Anderson)
PEDRINI, GIOVANNI, called GIAMPIETRINO - Nativity - Richmond, Cook Gallery.
conferred upon him honorary doctorates in philology and in Oriental history. The esteem in which he was held in the scholarly world is evidenced by the two volumes of Mélanges P. P., presented to him on his eightieth birthday.
A complete bibliography is given in Anal. Bolland., 69 (1951), pp. xlviii-xlix, and comprises 160 entries, most of them articles published in the Anal. Bolland. and in many other specialist journals. Among his separate works the following deserve mention: Bibliotheca hagiographica orientalis, Brussels (Heyruth) 1910; Evangelia epiphysis, vol. 1, Paris 1911-14; Histoires monastiques, vol. 1 of the Bollandists, Brussels-Paris 1942; Figures bollandiennes contemporaines, vol. 1, Brussels-Paris 1950; Recherches d'hist. et de philologie orientales, vol. 2, vol. 1, 1951. He also contributed extensively to the Acta SS. Novembris, vols. III, IV, V, and to the volumes of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum and the Martyrologium Romanum.