VIEBAN, ANTHONY

Sulpician, seminary professor; b. St. Pantaleonde-Lapleau, Tulle, France, Jan. 8, 1872; d. St. Petersburg, FL, Jan. 28, 1944. In 1891, after attending the ecclesiastical college of Theil, near Ussel, he entered the major seminary of Tulle; he was ordained on June 29, 1895. He then joined the Sulpicians and spent the next two years doing graduate work at L'Institut Catholique, Paris, receiving doctorates in theology and Canon Law (1897). After novitiate training at Issy, near Paris (1897–98), Vieban was sent to the U.S. Except for two years (1909–11) on the faculty of St. John's Seminary, Brighton, MA, he spent the next 20 years teaching dogmatic and pastoral theology, Canon Law, and Scripture at St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, MD. He contributed to Adolphe Tanquerey's Synopsis of Dogmatic Theology and to numerous ecclesiastical magazines. In 1917 he was transferred to Washington, DC, and became (1919) the superior of the Sulpician novitiate, first in Washington and then in Catonsville, MD, until his appointment as rector of the Theological College of The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. During his 46 years in the U.S., he served his society as a member of the provincial council, twice secretary to the superior general of the Sulpicians, personal counselor to his provincial at the world chapter of his society in 1922, and an elected American representative to later chapters (1929, 1936). Although thoroughly Americanized, Vieban always remained loyal to his native country and visited there whenever possible, preaching and giving parochial, seminary, and clerical retreats.

Bibliography: p. boisard, Lettre circulair à l'occasion de la mort de M. Anthony Vieban (Seminaire Saint Sulpice, Issy, 1944).

[c. m. cuyler]