The Bollandist Acta Sanctorum [pp. 81-87]

84rhe Bollandist Acta Sanctorum.
sixty-first and sixty-second of the
long series. It will also probably
contain (in pursuance of a Bol landist custom to commemorate
deceased members of their society)
a memoir of the late Pare Ma tagne, of whom the brightest hopes
were conceived that in a few years
he might have revived the best
achievements of the Ac/tla, but who
lately died at the early age of thirty eight. A supplementary volume
may after that be expected, bring ing up some arrears of former vol umes belonging to October, the
result of the many rude interrup tions experienced by the work since
the month was commenced, in 1765.
In stating these future projects the
writer is giving a summary of the
information communicated to him
for publication by P. R6mi de
Buck during a visit which will
presently be described.
It is impossible to look back on
the history of such an undertaking
without attempting some kind of
forecast as to its probable progress
and possible termination. The
Bollandists themselves sometimes
took a carlm survey of a period far
beyond the limit of their own lives;
as when the editor of the last volume of June, writing in I7I7, thus
expressed himself: " We are now
about to enter on another period of
six months, at the end of which
those who will then be engaged in
this work will finally have to revise
and double the months of January
and February; for those months,
as might be expected at the outset
of the work, are more imperfect,
and are deficient in many acta
since acquired, and more particularly in i66o by Henschen and
Papebroch in their journey through
Germany, Italy, and France. The
~ other months, edited after that
year, are not so deficient." There
are some data to assist in forming an
estimate of the probable duration of
the work. The last volume of June
contains an index of the saints'
names comprised in the first six
months of the year. Their number
amounts to some ninety-six hundred.
Similarly, in the first volume of
October will be found a corresponding index for the preceding three
months, July, August, and September. The number of names in it is
about forty-seven hundred. Again,
the New Bollandists, in their original appeal, De Prosecutione Operis
Bollandiani, 1838, published an
Elenchus SS. Beatorumn, etc., including some four thousand names.
The whole sum may be taken to be
from eighteen to twenty thousand.
The third quarter of the year occupied twenty-one volumes. The
New Bollandists have published
six volumes in some thlirty-five
years. Assuming that the month
of October contains one-third of
the remaining number of 4,000, the
share of the two closing months
of the year would be about 2,66oa number representing, say, ten
more volumes, and requiring, in
point of time, some sixty years before finis can be written on the last
page.
But even that estimate is not
sufficient, if we remember the number of saints declared venerable,
beatified, and canonized within the
years that have elapsed since the
several Bollandist months were
finished in their order. Still less
can that estimate suffice if we reflect on the future additions to the
Canon of the Blessed, periodically
attesting, and, as may be assuried,.
in unfailing sequence, the everyoung, ever-conquering force of
grace over nature, of spirit over
matter. Vilwed from such a point
as thisbe Where can the vista close?
84