BRUNO DE JÉSUS-MARIE

Carmelite writer and pioneer in the field of religious psychology; b. Bourburg, France, June 25, 1892; d. Paris, Oct. 16, 1962. Born Jacques Froissart, he entered the Discalced Carmelites in 1917, but poor health, which marked his early life, forced him to leave. After studying philosophy and theology at Rome for two years, he reentered the order in 1920 at Avon-Fontaine. From 1921 to 1925 he continued his theological studies at the Catholic University of Lille, and he was ordained in 1924. He was appointed editor of Études Carmélitaines in 1930, a position that he held for the rest of his life. This review became his forum for arousing interest in religious psychology, then a new field of intellectual activity. Along with his editorial work, he organized the first Congress of Religious Psychology. The congress included philosophers, theologians, and psychiatrists and, except for the war years, continued to meet annually. He also gave a series of lectures at the Universities of Vienna and Salzburg in 1935 and at that of Cairo in 1950. Among honors accorded him were the presidency of the Académie Septentrional in 1948 and the award of the Rose d'Or bestowed by the Rosati de Flandres in 1957.

His most important writings were in the fields of biography and religious psychology. They include Saint Jean de la Croix ; La Vie d'amour de St. Jean de la Croix ; Madame d'Acarie, épouse et mystique ; Le Sang du Carmel ; and Le Livre d'amour. His Les Faits mystérieux de Beauring and L'Espagne mystique au XVI ^e siècle were done in collaboration. He also edited an important work under the title Satan.

Bibliography: a. plÉ, "Le Père Bruno Jésus-Marie," Vie spirituelle, suppl. 63 (1962), 523. lucien-marie de st. joseph, "Le Père Bruno de Jésus-Marie, Directeur des Études carmélitaines," Foi vivante 3 (Brussels 1962): 169–175. P. Fr. Bruno a Jesus Maria, OCD, in Acta Ordinis fratrum carmelitarum discalceatorum 9 (Rome 1964) 176–182, necrology. Le Père Bruno de Jésus-Marie (Paris 1964) 49–53, bibliog., various authors.

[o. rodriguez]