Mercier, Desire Joseph

Mercier, Désiré Joseph 

Born Nov. 21, 1851, in Brainel’Alleud, Brabant; died Jan. 23, 1926, in Brussels. Belgian religious philosopher and church figure.

Mercier was a professor of philosophy at the University of Louvain (1882-1906), a Catholic archbishop (from 1906), and a cardinal (from 1907). He played a great role in the genesis of neo-Thomism. In Louvain he established the Higher Institute of Philosophy, or the School of Thomas Aquinas, in 1888. He founded the Thomist journal Revue neo-scolastique in 1894 (called Revue philosophique de Louvain since 1946) and helped to convert Louvain into an international center of neo-Thomism.

WORKS

Cours de philosophic, vols. 1-4. Paris, 1892-99.

REFERENCES

Lavelle, A. Le Cardinal Mercier. Paris, 1927.
Gade, J. The Life of Cardinal Mercier. New York-London, 1934.
De Raeymaeker, L. Le Cardinal Mercier. Louvain, 1952.
Simon, A. Position philosophique du Cardinal Merceir: Esquisse psychologique. Brussels, 1962.