Ursmer Berlière

[1] Berlière was born in Gosselies on 3 September 1861 and was educated at the Jesuit college in Charleroi and the minor seminary in Vellereille-les-Brayeux.

He taught in the abbey school for a number of years, and published his historical research in the Revue Bénédictine.

In 1890 he launched the Monasticon belge, a prosopography of pre-1801 Belgian monasticism that would eventually run to 23 volumes, with publication completed in 1993.

From 1902 to 1906, and again from 1922 to 1930, he was director of the Belgian Historical Institute in Rome, and from 1912 to 1914 chief curator of the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels.

In 1931 a Festschrift was published in his honour under the title Hommage à dom Berlière.