… Who go before us into Eternity
Our friend Professor Marie-Françoise Baslez died on 29 January 2022 at the Cognacq-Jay Hospital (Paris) and was buried on Wednesday 2 February at 10.30 a.m. in the church of Saint Dominique, her parish.
Elected professor at the Sorbonne at the height of a distinguished career in the service of history and her students, she studied the relations between Hellenism and Judaism up to the emergence of Christianity, as well as religious violence from the Hellenistic period to the fourth century AD. Very active in the research of the “Classical and Late Antiquity” team, within our UMR 8167, Marie-Françoise has contributed regularly to the group “The Alexandrian Bible”, and also to our Bible in its traditions, offering us a rich annotated translation of Judith.
Her scientific work is considerable: fourteen books published and thirteen works in collaboration, crowned by several prizes: the Diane Potier-Boès prize in 1992 for Saint Paul, the Chateaubriand prize in 2007 for Les Persécutions dans l’Antiquité, victims, heroes, martyrs, and the French Academy prize (François Millepierres) in 2017 for Les Premiers Bâtisseurs de l’Église. Episcopal Correspondences (2nd-3rd centuries).
Many interviews on France Culture and several television broadcasts on KTO make it possible to find her in podcasts. In the hospital, M.-F. Baslez gave interviews to radio stations last September for her latest book ( The Church at home. History of the first Christian communities. Ier-IIIe siècle, 2021)!
Marie-Françoise wanted to live her last months very wisely as a pilgrimage to the Holy Jerusalem.
So communications with Jerusalem had increased, by messages and photographs…
Having reached the heavenly city, may the immense specialist, the great intellectual and the woman of heart that our friend was, never cease to inspire and help all those she leaves behind in the city below!
… and others keep going
While Fr. Lukasz Popko and Jordan Schmidt (in Jerusalem to lead the doctoral seminar in Old Testament this semester), are putting the finishing touches to the edition of Jonah for our collection at Peeters,
Marc Girard is in the final stages of preparing the first book of the Psalter, in dialogue with our editorial committee.
Among the collaborators with whom we have been in touch recently, let us mention
Sr Mary Dominic Pitt O.P (Nashville), who continues to study, translate, and annotate Revelation, with a special stress on its Syriac version.
Mme Marie-Édith Garin, from Bordeaux, continues the meticulous exploration of the whole Joseph cycle,
Prof. Michaela Bauks (Univ. Koblenz-Landau) translates and annotates Judges,
Sr. Marie-Madeleine Saint Aubin O.S.B., from Quebec, continues her meticulous work on the epistles of Paul,
Prof. Jean Jacques Lavoie (UQAM) Jean Jacques Lavoie (UQAM) continues his work on Qoheleth.
The beehive is still buzzing!
