René Laurentin

He is widely recognized as "one of the world’s foremost students" of Mariology[2] and is the author of numerous books and scholarly articles on topics including Marian apparitions such as Lourdes and Medjugorje; visionaries and mystics including Bernadette Soubirous, Thérèse de Lisieux, Catherine Labouré, and Yvonne Aimée de Malestroit; as well as biblical exegesis, theology, and Vatican II.

In the early 1960s he served as a consultant to the Preparatory Theological Commission of the Second Vatican Council on parts of the Marian doctrine in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.

[5] Laurentin also served as Vice President of the French Mariological Society (Société française d’études mariales) from 1962 to 1997.

[2] Laurentin is widely recognized as an expert in the field of Mariology and is the author of over 150 books[2] six volumes of which focused on Lourdes.

[5] His writings, translated in many languages, cover a range of topics on Marian apparitions including Lourdes and Medjugorje; visionaries and mystics including Bernadette Soubirous, Thérèse de Lisieux, Catherine Labouré, and YvonneAimée de Malestroit; as well as biblical exegesis, theology, and Vatican II.