March 7, 1855–March 10, 1938

Marie-Joseph Lagrange, O.P., was a French Dominican priest and scholar.

When the Modernism crisis threatened to lay an axe to the root of Catholic scholarship, Pope Leo XIII responded unflinchingly: “The Church has nothing to fear from truth.” Encouraging the growth and expansion of Catholic intellectual life, Leo XIII called in particular for the re­vitalization of biblical exegesis. The work of M.-J. Lagrange, O.P., came in answer to this call.

Founder of the École Biblique in Jerusalem, a school for biblical studies, Lagrange also established the journal Revue Biblique and the series Études biblical—all of which were instrumental in elevating the use of the historical method in Catholic theology.

Lagrange’s best-known work is L’évangile de Jésus-Christ (1928), the English translation of which Cluny is proud to restore in a new edition after decades of its being out of print.