Antoine Augustin Calmet

Antoine Augustin Calmet (; 26 February 167225 October 1757) was a French Benedictine abbot.

Calmet was a monk as well as a learned man, and one of the most distinguished members of the Congregation of St. Vanne. In recognition of these qualities he was elected prior of Lay-Saint-Christophe in 1715, Abbot of St-Léopold at Nancy in 1718, and of Senones Abbey in 1729. He was twice entrusted with the office of Abbot General of the congregation. Pope Benedict XIII wished to confer episcopal dignity upon him, but his humility could not be brought to accept the honor. At the end of these studies, he joined the Benedictine order of the Congregation of Saint-Vanne and St. Hydulphe. His novitiate was made to the St. Mansuy Abbey Toul where he took monastic vows on 23 October 1689. He was then sent to study philosophy at St. Èvre Abbey and theology at Munster Abbey.

He was ordained into the Priesthood on 1 March 1696 in Arlesheim near Basel, and said his first Mass in the Abbey of Munster on 24 April 1696.

He was commissioned to explain the holy scriptures in the Abbey of Moyenmoutier and Munster Abbey (1704), and was appointed prior to Lay-Saint-Christophe (1714–1715) He became abbot of St. Leopold Nancy (1718). He went through the various monasteries of his order, devouring libraries and writing many historical compilations. In 1728, Calmet was called as priest of Senones Saint-Pierre Abbey, the capital of Principality of Salm. It is in the great abbey Vosges that he worked and lived the last part of his life, maintaining a correspondence with many scientists, and remaining there until his death on 25 October 1757.

Tributes There are squares which bear his name in Commercy and Senones. There is also a Dom-Calmet Street in downtown Nancy since the late 19th century and a street of Metz in the Sablon district bears his name since 1934.

His monument is erected in St. Peter's Abbey Senones and includes a list of his works.

Written works

Comments on the Bible Calmet was educated at the Benedictine priory of Breuil in the town of Commercy, and in 1688 joined the same Order at the Abbey of Saint-Mansuy at Toul, where he was admitted to profession on 23 October of the following year. After his ordination, 17 March 1696, he was appointed to teach philosophy and theology at the Abbey of Moyenmoutier. Here, with the help of his brethren, he began to gather the material for his commentary of the Bible, which he completed at Munster in Alsace where he was sent in 1704 as sub-prior and professor of Biblical exegesis.

Other works In the meanwhile he had prepared two other works closely connected with Biblical exegesis: (1) Histoire de l'Ancien et du Nouveau Testament et des Juifs (Paris, 1718), which went through several editions, and was translated into English (London, 1740), German (Augsburg, 1759) and Latin (ib., 1788); (2) Dictionnaire historique, critique, chronologique, géographique et littéral de la Bible (Paris, 1720, two vols. folio), a supplement (also folio) was added in 1728. An improved and enlarged edition in four folio volumes was published in 1730, which has several times been reprinted, the last time in Migne, Encyclopédie théologique, I-IV. It, too, was translated into Latin and the principal European languages. The English translation by D'Oyley and John Colson (1732), revised and with additions by Taylor (1795), went through many editions in a larger and compendious form.

Calmet wrote a noted history of the Duchy of Lorraine, as well as a history of the Abbey of Senones, which was still in manuscript form at the time of his death.