Édouard Hugon Roman Catholic Priest, French Dominican

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

, Thomistic philosopher and theologian trusted and held in high esteem by the Holy See

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

, was a famed professor at the Angelicum at the turn of the 20th Century, as well as a well-known author of philosophical and theological manuals within the school of traditional Scholastic Thomism.

Biography

Florentin-Louis Hugon was born on 25 August 1867 in Lafarre (Loire), France, a small mountain village in the Diocese of Puy-en-Velay. At eighteen years of age, having finished secondary school, he entered the Dominican Order in Rjickolt, Holland, where the Studium of the Province of Lyons was taking refuge away from political persecutors. The following year he received the Dominican habit under the name Brother Édouard. He made his solemn profession on 13 January 1890 and was ordained priest on 24 September 1892. He immediately began his teaching career, which lasted until the end of his life. He successively taught in Rijckolt (Holland), at Rosary Hill (New York), in Poitiers, in Angers, again at Rijckolt, and finally at the Angelicum (Rome) from 1909 to 1929. He also worked as Consultant for the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church (now known as the Congregation for the Oriental Churches

Congregation for the Oriental Churches

The Congregation for the Oriental Churches is the dicastery of the Roman Curia responsible for contact with the Eastern Catholic Churches for the sake of assisting their development, protecting their rights and also maintaining whole and entire in the one Catholic Church, alongside the liturgical,...

).

Works

Perhaps his most notable contribution as a writer is his involvement with the ecclesiastical document known as The 24 Thomistic Theses, which was issued by the Sacred Congregation of Studies under the authority of Pope St. Pius X in 1914, and which is the official pronouncement of the Catholic Church on which philosophical positions constitute Thomism

Thomism

Thomism is the philosophical school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, his commentaries on Aristotle are his most lasting contribution...

.

Among Hugon's personal works, some of the best-known are:

Les XXIV theses thomistes ("The 24 Thomistic Theses," a work which explains the ecclesiastical document by the same name).

Cursus philosophiae thomisticae, 4 vols. ("Thomistic Philosophy Course," based on the thought of St Thomas Aquinas as interpreted by John of St Thomas).

Tractatus dogmatici, 3 vols. ("Dogmatic Treatises," a course on theology organized as a commentary on Aquinas' Summa Theologiae).

Hors de l'Église, point de salut ("Outside of the Church there is No Salvation," his Thomistic solution to the theological problem of salvation and membership in the Catholic Church).

La causalite instrumentale dans l'ordre surnaturel ("Instrumental Causality in the Supernatural Order").

External links

• Cursus philosophiae thomisticae, vol. 1: Logica, vol. 2: Philosophiae naturalis Ia-IIae: Cosmologia, and vol. 3: Philosophiae naturalis IIa-IIae: Biologia et psychologia.
• Presentation of Fuori della Chiesa non cè salvezza (Edizioni Amicizia Cristiana: Chietti, 2007), the Italian translation of Hors de l'Église, point de salut.
• "The 24 Thomistic Theses" (document of the Sacred Congregation of Studies, 1914).