RUINART, THIERRY

Benedictine scholar of the Congregation of Saint-Maur; b. Reims, June 10, 1657; d. Abbey of Hautvillers, Sept. 29, 1709. He entered the Abbey of saint-remi in 1674, was professed in 1675 at Saint-Faron of Meaux, lived at corbie from 1677 to 1681, and in 1682 settled at Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where he became the favorite student of mabillon. He died suddenly while on a scholarly trip. The first and most valuable of his works was the Acta primorum martyrum sincera, following his dissertation on the edition of the acts and the cult of the martyrs (Paris 1689; the Amsterdam edition of 1713 has Dom Massuet's life of Ruinart). This well-conceived work, several times republished and translated, does not fulfill the demands of modern criticism. Later, Ruinart wrote the Historia persecutionis Vandalicae (1694; Patrologia Latina 58); the first part consists of the works of victor of vita, and the second, the history of the persecutions. Then came the Gregorii Episcopi Turonensis opera (1699; Patrologia Latina 71) with a preface on religion in Merovingian Gaul and on Gregory of Tour's manuscripts. After having published the Acta O.S.B. saec. VI (11th century) in 1701 with Mabillon, and while preparing volume 6 of the Annales O.S.B. (1739), Ruinart tried his hand at polemics with the Apologie de la mission de saint Maur en France (1702) and the Ecclesia Parisiensis vindicata (1706). Besides the Histoire de Fr. Morosini (Mémoires de Trévoux, Nov. 1703), he wrote the Beati Urbani papae II vita, Dissertatio de pallio archiepiscopali (in Thuillier, Oeuvres posthumes de Mabillon, 1724), and the Abrégé de la vie de Dom J. Mabillon (1709), whose De re diplomatica (1709) he reedited. The Journal de dom Ruinart, written daily in 1698 and 1699 at the height of the disputes between the jesuits and maurists, was published by Ingold, Histoire de l'edition bénédictine de Saint Augustin (1903). Ruinart's Iter litterarium in Alsatiam et Lotharingiam was published by Thuillier (Oeuvres … Mabillon ). The Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris has preserved the correspondence of Dom Ruinart (MS Fr. 19665–66).

Bibliography: h. leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie 15.1:163–182.

[j. daoust]