Bollandists

Bollandists, a society of Jesuits at Antwerp, so called as the continuators of the Acta Sanctorum after the death of Bolland. From 1665 to 1782, twenty-two editors in succession were engaged, and published one hundred and seventy-three volumes. These were all Jesuits; and after the suppression of that order, canons regular, Benedictines, and others devoted themselves to the continuation of this work. The renewal of it was undertaken in 1838 by several Jesuits at Brussels. Some idea of the vast extent of this work, still in progress, may be gathered from the fact that the lives of more than two thousand saints remain to complete the year, and more than fifty additional volumes in folio must be published before the completion of the work. SEE ACTA SANCTORUM.