Jean Bolland was born 13 August 1596 in the village of Julémont, now part of
Herve (Belgium), which us north-east of the city of
Liège. The village of Bolland, after which the family took their name, is nearby. He entered the
Society of Jesus in 1612 at
Mechelen. After his studies at the Jesuit colleges of Maastricht and Antwerp, Bolland taught
humanities in
Roermond,
Den Bosch,
Brussels and
Antwerp. In 1620 Bolland was sent to study
theology at the
University of Leuven. Four years later he received
holy orders and then became prefect of studies at the Jesuit college of
Mechelen. Bolland was ordained in 1625. In 1630, he was called to Antwerp by the superior of the
Flemish province of the
Society of Jesus to examine papers left by the hagiographer
Heribert Rosweyde who had died shortly before, and report back his opinion as to what it was advisable to do with them. Bolland went to Antwerp, familiarised himself with the manuscripts and, while admitting that the work was still merely a rough and faulty draft, gave reasons for believing that without an undue expenditure of labour, it might be brought to a successful completion. He offered to oversee the work on two conditions: that he should be free to modify the plan of Rosweyde as he understood it and that Rosweyde's materials should be set apart for his exclusive use. The Provincial Superior, Jacques van Straten, accepted the conditions and Bolland was transferred from the college of Mechelen to Antwerp, where he became director of the
Latin Congregation, a congregation composed of the principal people of the city, and had charge of preparing the
Acta Sanctorum for publication. Bolland began by outlining an even more ambitious plan. Rosweyde had confined his quest of original texts to libraries in the
Flanders and neighbouring regions. Rosweyde had proposed to publish only the original texts without commentaries or annotations, but Bolland decided to give all the information he could find for each saint and his cult, to preface each text with a study of its author and its historical value and to append notes of explanation. He visited monastic libraries, collecting and copying a considerable number of documents. ==Arrival of Henschen==