BARDY, GUSTAVE

Patristic scholar, b. Belfort, France, Nov. 25, 1881;d. Dijon, Oct. 31, 1955. Educated at the Seminary of St. Sulpice (Issy), Bardy was ordained on June 30, 1906, attended the Institut Catholique of Paris until 1909, and lectured in theology at the University of Besançon. Called to military service in 1914, he was wounded and decorated for valor. In 1919, he joined the faculty of theology at Lille, remaining until 1927 when he transferred to the University of Dijon. He continued his patristic studies and edited the diocesan paper Vie Diocésaine de Dijon until his death.

His biography, Didyme l'Aveugle, appeared in 1910, and S. Athanse in 1914. He received doctorates in letters and in theology on the publication of his Recherches sur… le texte … du 'De Principiis' d'Origène and his magistral thesis, Paul de Samosate, in 1923. In the same year a study of the latter subject by the rationalist theologian Friedrich Loofs appeared. The two works demonstrated the difference in scholarly conclusions reached by men similar in competence and training, but divergent in belief and methods. Bardy's book was delated to the Holy Office, and in 1929 he brought out a thoroughly revised edition.

Bardy possessed a vast knowledge of the early Church and was abreast of diverse schools of investigation. He published more than 30 full-length books, edited several Greek texts, contributed major articles on patristic topics to the principal ecclesiastical encyclopedias, and wrote extensive articles on the theology of the early Church, monasticism, early Christian education, literary frauds, conversion, pagan survivals, Arianism, and the moral teaching of the Alexandrian Fathers. Encyclopedic in knowledge after the fashion of Louis Sébastien le Nain de tillemont, Bardy was long regarded as the dean of French patrologists. He spent his last days completing an introduction to his translation of the Church History of Eusebius (Sources Chrétiennes v. 31, 41, 55, 73).

Bibliography: "Mémorial Gustave Bardy," Revue des études augustiniennes (August 2, 1956) 1–37. j. lebon, Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 51 (1956) 348–49.

[f. x. murphy]