I have lost a reference. Pius-Ramon Tragan has died in Montserrat at the age of 95. He was a sage of those who no longer remain. Monjo, secretary of Abbot Escarré, biblical expert, devoted most of his life to teaching. Professor at the University of Strasbourg and at the Pontifical S. Anselmo in Rome, of which he was rector. Brilliant and cosmopolitan, he had a German rigor, a Roman classicism and a French refinement, the language in which he wrote his thesis on the Gospel of John. He knew the Holy Land well. He wrote some notes about his last trip, a few years ago, which he sent to me. He anticipated the tragedy that is now taking place there.
Expert in the canonical and apocryphal gospels, scholar of primitive Christianity, supporter of the method of critical exegesis of the Bible, when he retired from teaching in Rome, he returned to Montserrat, where, in addition to continuing to publish books and articles, he he took charge of two imposing legacies that are preserved in the monastery. The fabulous Roca Puig collection of papyri, which includes, among others, fragments from the 3rd century B.C. of the Iliad and the Odyssey and texts from the second century AD. from the Gospel of Matthew. He also modernized the Biblical Museum, which the monk, translator and adventurer Bonaventura Ubach (the one who brought a Caravaggio and a mummy to Montserrat) treasured in his travels through the Near East, when still the ancient Christian communities of these Arabized places were flourishing (and not persecuted or eliminated as now).
The historical method of biblical exegesis is frowned upon by the fundamentalist sectors of Catholicism. He dedicated his life to it, with absolute intellectual honesty, but also with absolute ecclesial fidelity. This is what impressed me about him: that he was able to balance critical rationality with ecclesial loyalty. His life lesson is valid for everyone: make freedom and commitment compatible.
