Garet, Jean (Garetius)
GARET, JEAN (GARETIUS)
Theologian; b. Louvain, early 16th century; d. Belgium, Jan. 21, 1571. After completing a course in philosophy, he joined the Canons Regular of St. Augustine at Saint-Martin in Louvain. After his ordination, he served as subprior of the monastery of Saint-Martin. He also assumed the spiritual direction of two convents of religious women at Antwerp and Ghent. He devoted all his free time to writing and preaching against Protestantism. His writings manifest vast erudition, sane judgment, and ardent attachment to the traditional truth. For reasons of ill health, he refused the bishopric of Ypres. His masterpiece was a work on the Eucharist proving the Real Presence from patristic texts: De vera praesentia corporis Christi in sacramento Eucharistiae (Antwerp 1561). It was the source which A. arnauld and P. nicole used in the compilation of their famous La Perpetuité de la foi (Paris 1669–76). Garet also published works on the invocation of saints and suffrages for the dead.
Bibliography: j. forget, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 6.1:1158–60.
[c. r. meyer]