Pierre Maraval (31 August 1936 – 6 March 2021)[1] was a French historian and academic, specialising in the Early Christianity (c. 31/33–324) and of Late antiquity.
[2] Born into a modest family in Roquecourbe, Maraval inherited from his mother, who was very pious, a religious commitment that led him to the minor seminary.
At the same time, he was invited to the Academie Alfonsiana, at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, but confirmed his taste for ancient languages.
He defended a thesis in 1971 on Gregory of Nyssa's Vie de sainte Macrine, the text of which he established before translating and commenting on it, under the direction of the Hellenist Marguerite Harl.
[5] A member of the Société des Antiquaires de France, the French Committee for Byzantine Studies and the Association for Late Antiquity, he was a visiting scholar in several European and North American universities and a member of the editorial board of a number of academic journals.