Laroche, Alain De

Laroche, Alain De, also called ALANUS DE RUPE, a French Roman Catholic theologian, was born in Brittany about the year 1428. While yet quite young he joined the Dominicans, studied philosophy and theology at Paris, and was sent to the Netherlands in 1459. After lecturing for a while in the convents of Lille and Douai, he became professor of theology at Gand in 1468, and at Rostock in 1470. He died at Zwoll September 8, 1475. Full of zeal, but very deficient in knowledge, Laroche labored ceaselessly to propagate the use of the rosary; he was the first to preach on this practice, introducing in his sermons marvelous stories which he mostly invented himself. His works were published more than a century after his death, under the title Beatus Alanus de Rupe redivivus, de Psalterio, seu Rosario Christi et Mariae, tractatus, in partes distributus (Friburg, 1619, 4to; Colossians 1624; Naples, 1630). See Trithemius, De Script. Eccles. 100:850; Choquet, Script. Belg. Ord. Praedicat. pages 202-218; Echard, Script. Ord. Praedicat.; Paquot, Memoires, etc., 3:144-150; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 29:622. SEE ROSARY. (J.N.P.)