Father Marie-Joseph Lagrange OP, 1855-1938

Father Lagrange had to pay the price in suffering and renunciation until the end of his life. Many of his contemporaries, including popes and cardinals, were deeply disturbed by his writings.

Today’s readers of the Scriptures have Father Lagrange to thank for his authentic studies and writings that dispelled many of the false notions about the interpretation of the Word of God. He is called the founder of modern Catholic Bible study. Today his cause for beatification has been introduced in the Vatican.

Father Lagrange was born Albert Lagrange at Bourg-en-Bresse, France, on March 7, 1855, the fourth child of Catholic parents, Claude-Pierre Lagrange and the former Elisabeth Falsan. Five days after his birth, he was taken to the Church of Notre Dame and baptized Albert Marie Henri. He then was presented at the altar of the Black Madonna, where his life was dedicated to Mary.

Albert’s formative years were spent largely in the company of his pious mother and his sisters. He developed a taste for drawing, music (he played the cello), and needlework.

When Albert made his First Communion in 1866 at the age of 11, he said he felt Mary was calling him to the priesthood. By 1870, he became intent on becoming a Dominican. As a seventh grader, Albert began studies in a seminary at Autun in which he followed a strict regime of language studies in Greek, Latin, German, and English. He became very interested in science, especially archaeology and geology.

What was next for the very intelligent Albert? Perhaps a career in law was in order, and he began the study of law, received a doctorate in law, and then spent a year in the military.

In October, 1879, Albert received the Dominican habit from the hands of the Master General Hyacinth Cormier under the name of Brother Marie-Joseph. A year later, he made his final vows and plunged head-on into the study of the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas.

Soon the brothers were expelled from their priory and took refuge in Spain. He was ordained in 1883, and soon ended exile in Spain. Back in his own province of Toulouse in France, Father Lagrange was being steeped in the studies which would shape his future.

From the beginning, his superiors had intended Father Lagrange for the pursuit of biblical studies in which he excelled. Learning Hebrew was a must, and he taught himself this language. In Paris he studied Near Eastern languages, and then moved on to further study in Vienna.

In February, 1889, Father Lagrange received a letter from his provincial in Toulouse saying that he was being released to the Priory of St. Etienne (Stephen) of Jerusalem to help found a school of Sacred Scripture there!

Years later, he wrote, "I was shattered. This letter seemed to toll the death bell for my hopes. What could one do so far from the scholarly world? Would we be able to get the books we needed there? Would it be possible to work in that burning climate?"

The Dominican Father Mathieu Lecompte had opened a priory in Jerusalem in an abandoned slaughterhouse with the intention of beginning a biblical school in the Holy Land, but his untimely death almost shattered that dream of the Toulouse province.

It was left to Father Lagrange to make the dream come true. What assets did he have: the abandoned slaughterhouse which served as a priory and classroom, a blackboard, a table, a map, one student, four professors and an insatiable desire to make the Holy Word come alive?

From his first sight of the Holy Land, Father Lagrange wrote, "I was gripped by this sacred land..I had so loved the Book, and now I contemplate the Land. Not a doubt existed in my mind about the rightness of studying the Bible in Jerusalem."

But all was not rosy. The books which he so desperately needed were unavailable. His critics were quick to criticize his methods, his writings, and his publication of the scholarly Biblical Review. Students were slow in coming; professors were unprepared and uninterested in many areas.

Should Father Lagrange give up his dream of a Biblical School in Jerusalem? Should he abandon his critical-historical methods of studying Scripture? Should he leave it to the Jesuits to establish a Papal Biblical School in Jerusalem? Pope Leo XIII endorsed his methods, but some of his successors did not place favorable recommendations on the works of Father Lagrange.

His method of accepting criticism differed from many other writers of his day. Some left the Church; some were excommunicated, but continued writing in defiance and disobedience to the Catholic Church. Lagrange continued his biblical studies within the Church.

He kept the flame of biblical studies alive in a time of darkness, but was ready at a moment’s notice to cease teaching, writing, and publishing if the pope forbade it. His many letters to the Holy Father and to his Master General are filled with sentiments such as these:

"Most Holy Father, prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, I accept with the most filial obedience your decision, communicated to me through the master general of our order, forbidding me to publish, in any way whatsoever, a commentary on Genesis.

"But it is not enough to obey Your Holiness’ orders. I have therefore resolved to consider even your wishes as orders. If then Your Holiness deems it is preferable that I cease on biblical studies, I will give them up immediately without any hesitation. I am not the type to submit and then continue.

"I only beseech Your Holiness to deign to believe in the right intention that has inspired me up to now. The measure Your Holiness has taken in my regard makes me fear I have been mistaken, and it would be impossible for me to write the slightest line with the awareness that I am disobeying the instructions of Your Holiness."

The cause for the beatification of Father Marie-Joseph Lagrange is in process. This servant of God, called the founder of modern Catholic Bible study, is a teacher who has benefited the world and serves as a Christian model of obedience to authority, even when he knew in his heart that his methods were beyond reproach.