Piatus of Mons, Belgian priest and canonist (1815-1904)

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Piatus of Mons (secular name, JEAN-JOSEPH LOISEAUX), b. August 5, 1815; d. in the Monastery of Ste. Claire, Bruges, April 21, 1904. As a student for the priesthood he distinguished himself in moral theology and canon law. After his ordination as a secular priest of the Diocese of Tournai, Belgium, in 1838, he continued his study of canon law at Louvain. In 1843 he was appointed a vicar of the cathedral of Tournai, but the following year he went to Rome, and there spent two years in the Belgian college, studying canon law and working for the congregations. He returned to Belgium in 1846 and the next year was appointed to the chair of canon law and ecclesiastical history at Louvain. In 1847 in cooperation with Abbe Felise he founded the quarterly magazine, "Melanges theologiques", and later the "Revue theologique" and the "Nouvelle revue theologique". The first was concerned chiefly with canon law; the second with liturgy. He continued to edit the "Nouvelle revue theologique" until 1895, when it passed into the hands of the Redemptorists. He twice refused the Bishopric of Tournai. In 1871 he entered the Order of Capuchin Friars Minor. His chief works are: "Praelectiones juris regularis"; a dissertation, "De sententia S. Bonaventurae circa essentiam sacramenti Poenitentiae"; "Traite du jubile". He also wrote a great number of articles in theological reviews.

FATHER CUTHBERT