Germain Marc'hadour (16 April 1921 – 22 February 2022) was a French Catholic priest and a professor of English at the Université Catholique de l'Ouest in

Angers Angers (, , ;) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Duchy of Anjou, Anjou until the French Revolution. The i ...

. He was an internationally recognized authority on the life and work of Saint Sir

Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VII ...

and the founder of the journal ''

Moreana ''Moreana'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering research about Thomas More and his milieu and writings, as well as relevant broader questions of 16th-century history, literature and culture. It is published by Edinburgh Universit ...

''.

Life and career

Marc'hadour was born in

Langonnet Langonnet () is a commune in the Morbihan department of Brittany in north-western France. Geography Langonnet is in north-west of Cornouaille, in Lower Brittany. It is one of the few Cornouaille parishes to be located in the present-day Mo ...

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

, the son of shopkeepers, and grew up bilingual in

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

and

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...

. He studied English at the Université Catholique in Angers, and was ordained priest on 18 June 1944. After graduating from the Université Catholique he spent short periods of study at the University of Lyon and at University College, London, before beginning to teach in the English department at Angers in 1954. From 1959 he was associated with the

Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More The ''Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More'' is the standard scholarly edition of the works of Thomas More, published by Yale University Press. The first of the fifteen volumes to be published (volume 2) appeared in 1963, and the ...

, a project based at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. On 1 July 1960, he attended the first night of '' A Man for All Seasons'' in London, publishing his first article about the play. A

Fulbright grant The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

enabled Marc'hadour to spend fifteen months at Yale in 1960–1961, where he worked on the edition of the '' Supplication of Souls'' and consulted More holdings in Washington, San Marino, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto. He returned to North America on a number of occasions throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a researcher and as a lecturer, with stints at the

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily a ...

Sherbrooke University Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional count ...

, the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

and Rhode Island University. On 29 December 1962, the international

Association Amici Thomae Mori Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

was founded in Brussels, Marc'hadour becoming the International Secretary in September 1963 and founding the journal ''Moreana''. In 1969, Marc'hadour obtained his doctorate from the

Paris-Sorbonne University Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; ) was a public university, public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Paris. In 2018, it m ...

, with a dissertation on "Thomas More and the Bible". On the fifth centenary of More's birth, in 1977, he was invited to lecture at events in many different countries and on French television. He contributed the article on Thomas More to the fifteenth edition of the

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

On 18 May 1988, he was created a knight of the

Ordre des Palmes Académiques A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to ...

. In 1989 a

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

was published in his honour, ''Miscellanea Moreana: Essays for Germain Marc'hadour'', edited by Clare M. Murphy and Henri Gibaud (Medieval and Renaissance texts and studies 61). Marc'hadour died at the Maison Saint-Joachim in

Sainte-Anne-d'Auray Sainte-Anne-d'Auray (; ) is a commune in the Morbihan department of Brittany in north-western France. It is the third most popular pilgrimage site in France, after Lourdes and Lisieux. History Sainte-Anne-d'Auray is a village in the Diocese ...

, Brittany, on 22 February 2022, at the age of 100. He was buried at Saint-Joachim's Cemetery on 25 February 2022.

Bibliography

*Thomas More, ''Lettre à Dorp; La supplication des âmes'', ed. and tr. Germain Marc'hadour. Soleil levant, Namur, 1962. *''L'Univers de Thomas More (1477–1535)''. Vrin, Paris, 1963. Volume 5 in the series "De Pétrarque à Descartes". *''Thomas More et la Bible: La place des livres saints dans son apologétique et sa spiritualité''. Vrin, Paris, 1969. *''The Bible in the Works of Thomas More'', 5 volumes. De Graaf, Nieuwkoop, 1969–1972. *''Thomas More ou La sage folie''. Seghers, Paris, 1971. *''Essential Articles for the Study of Thomas More'', ed. R. S. Sylvester and G. P. Marc'hadour. Archon books, Hamden (Conn.), 1977. *Thomas More, ''A Dialogue Concerning Heresies'', edited by Thomas M.C. Lawler, Germain Marc'hadour and Richard C. Marius. The Yale edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More, vol. 6. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1981. *''Correspondance entre Érasme de Rotterdam et Thomas More'', tr. Germain Marc'hadour & Roland Galibois. Publications du Centre d'études de la Renaissance 10. Centre d'études de la Renaissance, Sherbrooke, Qué., 1985. *Thomas More, ''The Supplication of Souls'', in the Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More: Volume 7. 1990. *''Thomas More: un homme pour toutes les saisons''. Les éditions ouvrières, Paris, 1992. *''Thomas More: Utopia''. Didier Erudition, Paris, 1998. *Thomas More, ''Dialogue du réconfort'', translated by Germain Marc'hadour and Jocelyne Malhomme. Brepols, Turnhout, 2010.

References

External links

* Amici Thomae Mori (Friends of Thomas More), https://thomasmorestudies.org/who-are-we/ * ''Moreana'', https://www.euppublishing.com/loi/more {{DEFAULTSORT:Marc'hadour, Germain 1921 births 2022 deaths Auburn University people Writers from Brittany Catholic University of America faculty Catholic University of the West alumni Academic staff of the Catholic University of the West Chevaliers of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques French male writers French Roman Catholic priests University of Paris alumni French men centenarians People from Morbihan