Ubaldo of Alençon

UBALDO OF ALENÇON. - Capuchin (secular name Léon-Louis Berson), b. 23 Dec. 1872 at Alençon, d. 5 July 1927 at Bry-sur-Marne.

Admitted to the Order in Oct. 1891, he saw his desire for the India mission disappointed by the sudden onset of a serious illness, tuberculosis. Ordained a priest in 1898, he was prevented by his precarious state of health from exercising the ministry. Having therefore devoted himself to historical studies, he became an active contributor to the Annales franciscaines and the Etudes franciscaines.

A discerning reader of the sources and endowed with great acumen in sifting through archival papers, his profiles of members of the Order, besides outlining on the basis of exhaustive documentation the events of the subjects' external lives, never lack an appropriate setting and a fine psychological sensitivity. Among his writings, particular mention should be made of: Mémoires et lettres du p. Timothée de la Flèche sur les affaires ecclésiastiques de son temps (1907), furnished with an introduction by U. and highly interesting for the history of Jansenism; Leçons d'histoire franciscaine (1918), in which he condensed the fruit of his historiographical activity; Les Frères Mineurs Capucins de Reims, which appeared in the Travaux de l'Académie de Reims of 1923 (vol. CXXXVII, pp. 75-235). During the First World War U. served in a hospital.

Silvio Furlani