The idea of the
Acta Sanctorum was first conceived by the Dutch Jesuit
Heribert Rosweyde (1569–1629), who was a lecturer at the Jesuit college of
Douai. Rosweyde used his leisure time to collect information about the lives of the saints. His principal work, the 1615
Vitae Patrum, became the foundation of the
Acta Sanctorum. Rosweyde contracted a contagious disease while ministering to a dying man, and died himself on October 5, 1629, at the age of sixty. Father Jean Bolland was prefect of studies in the Jesuit college of
Mechelen. Upon the death of Rosweyde, Bolland was asked to review Rosweyde's papers. Bolland then continued the work from
Antwerp. Underestimating the magnitude of the undertaking, Bolland initially thought he could finish the work on his own, but after a few years he had to admit that the undertaking was beyond his individual strength. He was then assigned an assistant,
Godfrey Henschenius (1601–81). The first two volumes of the
Acta, by Bolland and Henschenius, were published in
Antwerp in 1643. Unlike Rosweyde and Bolland, Henschenius was allowed to devote himself exclusively to the writing of the
Acta. He solved many problems relating to chronology, geography and the philological interpretation of the sources. February, March, and April (that is, the collected hagiographies of saints whose feast days occur in each month) took up three volumes each, May covered eight, and June seven volumes. By the time of his death, 24 volumes had appeared; moreover, Henschenius left many notes and commentaries for the following volumes. It can therefore be said that the
Acta owe their final form to Henschenius. By the time of the death of Father Papebrochius in 1714, the first six months of the year were practically completed. Work continued in the following years, led by
Conrad Janninck among others. ==Suppression and relocation (18th century)==