Editing Hippolyte Hélyot

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'''Hippolyte Hélyot''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=TOR}} (January 1660 – 5 January 1716) was a [[Franciscan]] [[friar]] and [[priest (Catholic)|priest]] of the [[Third Order of St. Francis#Third Order Regular|Franciscan Third Order Regular]] and a major scholar of [[church history]], focusing on the history of the religious Orders.

Hélyot was born at [[Paris]] in January 1660, supposedly of English ancestry, and [[Baptism|christened]] '''Pierre''' at his birth. After spending his youth in study, he entered, in his twenty-fourth year, the [[friary]] of the [[Third Order Regular of St. Francis]], founded in [[Picpus, Paris|Picpus]] – now part of Paris – by his uncle, Jérôme Hélyot, a [[canon regular]] of the [[Order of the Holy Sepulchre|Order of the Holy Sepulcher]]. There he took the religious name under which he gained his reputation as a historian.

Two journeys to [[Rome]] on business of the Order afforded him the opportunity of traveling over most of [[Italy]]; and after his final return he saw much of France, while acting as secretary to various [[religious superior|provincial superiors]] of his Order. Both in Italy and France he was engaged in collecting materials for his great work, which occupied him for about twenty-five years. It was titled ''L'Histoire des ordres monastiques, religieux et militaires, et des congregations séculières de l'un et de l'autre sexe, qui ont été établis jusqu'à présent'' (''The History of the Religious and Military Monastic Orders, and of the Secular Congregations of both Sexes, which have been established up to the Present Day''). ''L'Histoire'' was published in eight volumes between 1714 and 1719. Jean-Baptiste Coignard of Paris printed the first two volumes for Joseph Derbais of Douay; Coignard published the remaining six volumes under his own name.

Hélyot died on 5 January 1716, before the fifth volume appeared, but his friend and colleague, Friar Maximilien Bullot, T.O.R., completed the fifth volume and authored the remaining three volumes. Hélyot's other noteworthy work is ''Le Chrétien mourant'' (1695).

His ''History'' is a work of first importance, being the great repository of information regarding the general history of the [[religious order]]s up to the end of the 17th century. Hélyot gave detailed information about the foundation – and, where appropriate, the decline – of the various groups. It is profusely illustrated by large [[lithograph|plate]]s exhibiting the [[religious habit]]s of the various Orders, and in the edition of 1792 the plates are colored. It was translated into [[Italian language|Italian]] (1737) and into [[German language|German]] (1753). The material was arranged in an [[alphabet]]ical [[dictionary form]] by M. L. Badiche, for inclusion in [[Jacques Paul Migne|Migne]]'s ''Encyclopédie théologique'', under the title "Dictionnaire des ordres religieux" (5 vols., 1858).

==References==
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==External links==
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Helyot, Pierre|volume=13||page=256}}
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07214a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia article]

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{{Subject bar |portal1= Biography |portal2= Catholicism |portal3= France}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Helyot, Pierre}}
[[Category:1660 births]]
[[Category:1716 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century French historians]]
[[Category:17th-century French Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:18th-century French Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Third Order Regular Franciscans]]
[[Category:Writers from Paris]]
[[Category:French people of English descent]]
[[Category:Historians of monasticism]]
[[Category:French male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century French historians]]