Edmond Martène

Who was Edmond Martène?

Edmond Martène was a French Benedictine historian and liturgist.

In 1672 he entered the Benedictine Abbey of St-Rémy at Reims, a house of the Congregation of Saint-Maur. Owing to his zeal for learning, however, he was sent to Saint-Germain to receive training under d'Achéry and Mabillon, and also to assist in the preliminary work connected with the new edition of the Church Fathers. Thenceforth he devoted his life to the study of subjects connected with history and liturgy, residing in various monasteries of his order, especially at Rouen, where he received the sympathetic co-operation of the prior of Sainte-Marthe.

Even in his student years he had gathered from widely various sources everything that might be helpful in elucidating the Rule of St. Benedict; the fruit of his labours he published in 1690 as Commentarius in regulam S. P. Benedicti litteralis, moralis, historicus ex variis antiquorum scriptorum commentationibus, actis sanctorum, monasticis ritibus aliisque monumentis cum editis tum manuscriptis concinnatus.