Jean Baptiste Pitra, a French cardinal, born at Champforgueil, near Autun, Aug. 31, 1812. He studied at Autun, was ordained priest, taught rhetoric there for some time, became a member of the Benedictine congregation of Solesmes, and devoted himself to literary labors. He was repeatedly chosen prior of the monastery of Ligoge near Poitiers, visited the principal libraries of Europe, and acquired such a reputation for learning that Pius IX. called him to Rome in 1858, and gave him a special commission to compile a history of oriental rites and canon law. This obliged him to spend four years in travelling and collecting materials for his Juris Ecclesiastici Grcecorum Historia' et Monumenta (4to, Rome, vol. i., from the 1st to the 6th century, 1864; vol. ii., to the 9th century, 1868; unfinished). He was appointed a member of the ecclesiastical congregation of oriental rites in 1862, and was proclaimed cardinal March 16, 1863. He has also published Histoire de Saint Leger, eveque d'Autun et martyr, et VEglise des Francs au 7e siecle (Paris, 1846); Etudes sur la collection des actes des saints par les RR. PP. je-suites oollandistes (1850); Spicilegium Soles-mense (5 vols., 1852-60); Vie du R. P. Liber-mann, fondateur de la congregation du Saint-Cozur de Marie (1855); and Des canons et des collections canoniques de VEglise grecque, d'apres Vedition de M. G. A. Rhalli, president de Vareopage (1858).