RENAUDOT, EUSÈBE. – Born in Paris on 22 July 1648, and died there on 1 September 1720; Orientalist, liturgist, journalist. R. entered the Oratory on 17 June 1665, received the four minor orders there the following year (12 June), and left it because of illness on 1 April 1672, but always remained Abbé R. From his youth he devoted himself to the study of Oriental languages; besides Greek and Hebrew, he knew Arabic and Syriac well.
Because of this knowledge, Arnauld invited him to collaborate on vol. III of the apologetic work Perpétuisè de la foi de l'Eglise catholique touchant l'Eucharistie (1674); he himself later published vol. IV (1711), again on the Eucharist, and vol. V (1713), on the other Sacraments. The purpose was to prove to the Calvinists that the Eucharistic faith of Eastern Christians of every rite was identical with that of Catholics. He also prepared the complete version of the appended texts; he published Gennadii patriarchae Constantinopolitani Homiliae de Sacramento Eucharistiae... (1709) and Liturgiarum orientalium collectio, in 2 vols. (1715–16), reprinted in Frankfurt (1847), a work still indispensable today, containing the Mass of all the Eastern rites, except the Greek and Armenian, together with notes and learned studies. His unpublished versions of the Sacraments among the Eastern Christians were extensively used by H. Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium... 2 vols., Würzburg 1863–64. R.’s version is good, but he did not always know how to choose the best manuscript for his translation. He knew the East well; his Historia patriarcharum alexandrinorum... (1713) is still consulted; S. Salaville published Eusebii R. dissertatio de liturgiis orientalibus, in Ephem. liturg., 51 (1937), pp. 319–349. For 40 years he directed the Gazette de France, founded by his grandfather, and thus took an interest in politics, especially in the politics of England and the Papal States. He was a friend of Bossuet, of the Port-Royal circle and of the Jansenists, and a member of the French Academy, of the Académie des Inscriptions, and an associate of the Crusca.