A scholar who follows the methods of Jean Bolland, a Jesuit who systematically studied and published the lives of Christian saints with historical accuracy.
Named after Jean Bolland (1596–1665), a Flemish Jesuit priest and hagiographer, with the suffix -ist meaning 'one who practices or studies' his methods. His work laid the foundation for modern saints' scholarship.
Bollandists pioneered what we'd now call academic peer review and source criticism back in the 1600s—they questioned legends about saints that couldn't be verified historically, making them some of the earliest scientific historians of their era.
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