REILLY, WENDELL

Sulpician priest and Biblical scholar; b. North Hatley, Quebec, Canada, March 25, 1875; d. Baltimore, Maryland, Oct. 7, 1950. In 1895 Reilly entered the Grand Séminaire, Montreal and was ordained on July 31, 1898, in Sherbrooke, Quebec. After higher studies in theology and Scripture for two years at the Institut Catholique, Paris, he began his teaching career at St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore. In 1901 he resumed his study of Oriental languages at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. The following year he spent in the Sulpician novitiate at Issy, France, where he received the degree of S.T.D. from the Institut Catholique. From 1903 to 1907 he taught at St. John's Seminary, Brighton, Massachusetts, and then was sent to Jerusalem to continue his scriptural studies at the École Biblique. His studies were completed in Rome where he was awarded the degree of S.S.D. by the Pontifical Biblical Commission, the first American to earn this degree. Returning to the U.S., he taught at St. John's Seminary (until 1911) and then at St. Mary's Seminary again (until his retirement in 1947).

Reilly was one of two Americans chosen to work on the Westminster revision of the Bible, for which he translated and commented on St. John's Gospel. He was also one of the founders of the Catholic Biblical Association of America, a member of its committee on revision, and an editor of the NT translation (1941) published by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, for which he translated the Epistle to the Ephesians. He was cofounder and first editor–in–chief (1939–47) of the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, to which he contributed many articles, and cofounder and first moderator (1924–49) of The Voice, a magazine published by St. Mary's Seminary for its students and alumni.

Bibliography: The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 13 (1951) 86.

[c. j. noonan]