BERLIÈRE, URSMER

benedictine medievalist and editor; b. Gosselies, Hainaut, Belgium, Sept. 3, 1861; d. Maredsous Abbey, Aug. 27, 1932. Berlière, who was baptized Alfred, was educated by the Jesuits at Charleroi and entered the minor seminary at Tournai. He was professed a Benedictine in 1881 at the Abbey of maredsous, where he later (1885–92) taught after two years of study at seckau (1883–85). He was ordained in 1886. From 1894 to 1912 he directed the Revue bénédictine. He wrote the monumental Monasticon belge (1890–1929), which treated the history of monasticism in the Low Countries; a perceptive history, L'Ordre monastique des origines au XII ^e siècle (Maredsous 1912); and also L'Ascèse bénédictine des origines à la fin du XII ^e siècle (Paris 1927). Berlière held the posts of president of the Royal Historical Commission of Belgium and curator of the Royal Belgian Library (1912–14). He organized (1902) the Institut Historique Belge de Rome and launched the collection (1906) of Belgian-Vatican correspondence, Analecta vaticanobelgica. In 1930 he was named consultor for the historical section of the Congregation of Rites.

Bibliography: j. cuvelier, "Dom U. B.," Annuaire de l'Académie Royale de Belgique 105 (1939) 111–171, with Berlière's bibliog. r. gazeau, Catholicisme 1:1470–71. h. de moreau, "Dom U. B.," Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige 50 (1932) 31–32. p. h. pirenne et al., L'Hommage à dom U. B. (Brussels 1931).

[b. f. scherer]