Jean Bolland - Life and Work

Life and Work

Jean Bolland was born in 1596 in the village of Julémont, now part of Herve (Belgium), North-East of the city of Liège. The village of Bolland, after which the family took their name, is nearby. After his studies at the Jesuit colleges of Maastricht and Antwerp, Bolland taught humanities in Roermond, Den Bosch, Brussels and Antwerp. In 1620 Bolland was sent to study theology at the University of Louvain. Four years later he received Holy Orders and then became prefect of studies at the Jesuit college of Mechlin.

In 1630 he was called to Antwerp by the superior of the Southern Netherlands province of the Society of Jesus to examine papers left by the hagiographer Heribert Rosweyde who had died shortly before. Bolland made two conditions for taking on the project: that he should be free to modify the plan of Rosweyde as he understood it, and that Rosweyde's materials should be set apart for his exclusive use. The Provincial Superior, Jacques van Straten, accepted the conditions and Bolland was transferred from the college of Mechlin to Antwerp, where he became director of the Latin Congregation, in charge of preparing the Acta Sanctorum for publication.

Bolland began by outlining a more ambitious plan. Rosweyde had confined his quest of original texts to libraries in the Southern Netherlands and neighbouring regions. Bolland made appeals to collaborators all over Europe. Rosweyde had proposed to publish only the original texts, without commentaries or annotations, but Bolland decided to give all the information he could find for each saint and his cult, to preface each text with a study of its author and its historical value, and to append notes of explanation.

Shortly after arriving in Antwerp, Bolland had already succeeded in putting in good order the documents relating to the saints of January, and had found a publisher, Jan van Meurs. After working in Antwerp for five years, it became apparent that the task was too great for one man. Bolland asked for an assistant and this request was supported by the abbot of Liessies Abbey, Antoine de Wynghe. In 1635 Godfrey Henschen was assigned to start work on the February saints, while Bolland gave himself to the printing of the volumes for January. Henschen labored at the publication of the Acta Sanctorum up to the time of his death in 1681.

In 1659 Bolland received assistance from a third Jesuit, Daniel van Papenbroek, who in the end did most of the work for the 18 volumes of the Acta Sanctorum. In 1660-1662 Van Papenbroek and Henschen traveled through Germany, France and Italy, searching for old documents in monasteries and libraries.

Jean Bolland died in Antwerp, aged 69, in 1665.