Dictionary of Basilian Biography: Lives of Members of the Congregation of Priests of Saint Basil from Its Origins in 1822 to 2002 (review)

"Let us now sing the praises of those great men." Although the dedication begins and the dust jacket ends this immense tome with Sirach, these 649 biographies are not eulogies. This is yet another reference work to join a growing list of Canadian religious biographical dictionaries—notably the Canadian Jesuit, Oblate, and Sulpician dictionaries. The Basilian dictionary requires a review, because it has several points in its favor.

First, it is published by a university press and, while that is not an automatic guarantee of better quality than other Catholic biographical dictionaries (although it does reach university standards of research, writing, editing, and publishing), it will reach a different audience through its own distribution network, guaranteeing a wider impact.

Second, it is a dictionary that includes every deceased Basilian priest, even those who left the Congregation of Saint Basil. Only professed students who left before ordination are omitted. Other dictionaries rarely aspire to such comprehensiveness. Either the challenge is too great for very large Congregations, forcing a selection of more noteworthy individuals, or the compilers ignored those who left religious life. Few multi-volume efforts attempted comprehensiveness, even before legal worries of confidentiality, and they include only the briefest of entries. Not this one.

Third, it is a dictionary than crosses national boundaries, and includes French, English, Canadian, American, and a few other nationalities, as well as careers that go even farther, into Mexico and the Caribbean. Researchers and historians interested in the Catholic religious history of—in chronological order—France (the Ardèche); Toronto, Windsor, and the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario; Louisville, Kentucky; Algeria; Plymouth, England; Detroit, Michigan; Waco and Houston, including Hispanic ministry in Texas; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Rochester, New York; Gary (now Merrillville), Indiana; St. Joseph's College, Edmonton, in Alberta; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Oakland, California; Cali, Columbia; and St. Lucia in the West Indies would be well-served.

Fourth, a team of researchers, writers, and editors worked over a decade to build on the mammoth efforts of Robert Scollard's 1969 first edition and doubled its size. Although the dictionary spans the nineteenth to the beginnings of the twenty-first century, most of the entries relate to the twentieth century, the era of the Basilians' (and so many others') greatest growth and size. Since almost half of the book relates to individuals—almost all educators—who died since 1969, the value of this book to the history of Catholic education in the twentieth century is obvious.

Fifth, there is a brief introduction to the history of the Basilians, significant dates of Basilian foundations, including high schools, colleges, and parishes, a glossary of Basilian vocabulary, and—mainly of use to Basilians and their friends—a calendar of the deceased. Although there is some duplication and repetition given the restricted archival sources, a bibliography of archival and published sources as well as publications by the individual after each entry completes this massive work of painstaking scholarship. Taken together, this book stands out from ordinary filiopiety.

One quibble: there is no index. Although dictionaries of this type are already indexed alphabetically by name, and this dictionary has cross-referencing, an index of place names would make this dictionary much more valuable. Computer indexing has advanced so much that such a challenge can be easily overcome. Perhaps this volume will be made available for computer searching on the web?