Armand-Benjamin Caillau (22 October 1794 – 1850) was a French Catholic priest, a missionary and writer.
Life
Caillau was born in Paris. Ordained in 1818, he was successively a member of the Missions de France, rector of Sainte-Geneviève (rue d'Enfer) and chaplain of the Infirmerie Marie-Thérèse (92 avenue Denfert-Rochereau). He joined, in 1834, the Fathers of Mercy, newly re-organized by Rauzan. His love of missionary life made him decline episcopal honours and a chair at the Sorbonne, but was no obstacle to his literary pursuits. He died in Paris in 1850.
Works Besides many contributions to the , Caillau wrote (Paris, 1833), a French translation of Tertullian's (Paris, 1835), several monographs on Our Lady's Sanctuaries: (1834), (1843), (1846), (Paris, 1845), (Michel Vintras) (Orléans, 1849), etc.
He is best known, however, by the following works: (Paris, 1823-5), a patristic digest modelled on Merz's , with an introduction to patrology (Paris 1829-1842), 133 octavo volumes, undertaken in collaboration with Marie Nicolas Sylvestre Guillon and suspended at the announcement of Jacques-Paul Migne's "Patrology". The insertion of new sermons under the name of Augustine of Hippo (P.L., XLVII) brought about a controversy between the two editors. (Paris 1835-1840), four octavo volumes, and also (Paris 1863) five octavo volumes, written in collaboration with Louis Juste (Paris, 1842), two folio volumes (also P.G., XXVII and XXVIII), an edition, partly from the manuscript notes of D. Clémencet, reviewed by Abel-François Villemain in the (1845 and 1847) (Paris, 1838), three volumes never completed.
A similar project of a resulted only in the publication of a few opuscula of Ephrem the Syrian, Bonaventure, Idiota (Jordan), and the Marial monographs noticed above. Caillau also re-edited Merz's (1822), (1826), vols. III and IV of D. Ceillier's (1838-9); and (1839).
References
Sources Delaporte, Vie du P. Rauzan (Paris, 1857); Bibliographie catholique, X;