Thomas Bouquillon

Regarded as a prominent Catholic theologian of his time, his contributions focus on theology, the history of theology, ecclesiastical history, canon law and bibliography. He supported the educational views of Edward McGlynn and Archbishop John Ireland Bouquillon was active and influential in the organization of the Catholic universities of Lille and Washington, D.C.

Life

Thomas-Joseph Bouquillon was born on 16 May 1840 in Warneton, Belgium. He was the second son of five children in a family of small landholders long established at Warneton. He received his early education at local schools and at the College of St Louis at Menin. He studied philosophy at the Minor Seminary, Roeselare and theology at the seminary of Bruges.

Having entered the Georgian University in Rome in 1863, he was ordained as a priest in 1865 and became a doctor of theology in 1867. After ten years at the Bruges seminary and eight years at the Catholic University of Lille, France, as professor of moral theology, Bouquillon retired to the Benedictine monastery at Maredsous in 1885 and devoted his energies to the preparation of the second edition of his treatise on fundamental moral theology.

In 1892 he accepted the Chair of Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC, where he remained until his death on November 5, 1902, in Brussels, Belgium.