Louis (Hugues in religion) Vincent, o.p. (LV)

• Father Hugues

Born in Saint-Alban de Varaize (Isère) on August 31, 1972, Louis-Hugues Vincent entered the novitiate of the province of Lyon and was sent in 1891 to the École Biblique, which was then only one year old. It was there that he studied theology and philosophy and was ordained a priest. It was also from this that his vocation as an orientalist was born. He quickly became Fr. Lagrange's favourite disciple, while he himself had a deep affection for his master, of whom he would be his biographer.

At the Bible School, Fr. Vincent was in charge of the archaeology course. He knew Palestine better than anyone else, having visited everything, having annotated everything. In 1907, he published a synthesis: Canaan d'après l'exploration récente. The history of the sanctuaries, in collaboration with Fr. Abel, particularly remembered him. Together they published Bethlehem, the Shrine of the Nativity (1914), then Hebron, Haram el Khalil (1923), and finally Emmaus, its basilica and history (1932).

But the main subject of his research was Jerusalem and its history. Together with Father Abel, he first published New Jerusalem (1914-1922), about the Holy City and its shrines in Christ's time to the Crusades. After the Second World War and the death of Father Abel, he published his Old Testament Jerusalem (1954-1956) accompanied by an atlas with plates.

His science earned him many distinctions and accreditations with learned societies, in addition to being a correspondent of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.

He died at the Bible School on December 30, 1960.

ISAAR (CPF), 2nd Edition, 2004.

Entry prepared on November 2018

BOISMARD, Marie-Émile, In Memoriam : Louis-Hugues Vincent, supplément à la Lettre de Jérusalem, n° 20, 1er janvier 1961

Author(s) : Marie-Alpais Torcheboeuf.