Charles De Smedt

Charles De Smedt (6 April 1833, Ghent, Belgium  4 March 1911, Brussels) was a Belgian Jesuit priest and hagiographer. He was a Bollandist, and is noted for having introduced critical historical methods into Catholic hagiography, so that it became a collection of accounts of the accretion of legends, as well as the compilation of original materials.[1]

He is best known for his contribution to hagiography but also to history and metaphysics. His contribution to the development of a critical approach to History is epitomized in his masterpiece: Principes de la critique historique.

He revived the Bollandist Society and founded it scholarly journal, the Analecta Bollandiana in 1882 with G. van Hooff and Joseph de Backer.[2]

Works

Notes

  1. , in French.
  2. Bollandists - LoveToKnow 1911 Archived 11 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
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