He was a Bollandist, and is noted for having introduced critical historical methods into Catholic hagiography, so that it became a collection of accounts of the accretion of legends, as well as the compilation of original materials.

[1] Charles De Smedt was born in Ghent, Belgium on 6 April 1833.

He revived the Bollandist Society and founded it scholarly journal, the Analecta Bollandiana in 1882 with G. van Hooff and Joseph de Backer.

[3] From 1899 to 1902 De Smedt served as the acting rector at St. Michael's College in Brussels.

His contribution to the development of a critical approach to History is epitomized in his masterpiece: Principes de la critique historique, which greatly influenced Friedrich von Hügel.