Victor Augustus Isidore Dechamps, one of the most prominent members of the deputation de fide, was born at Melle, Eastern Flanders, in the château of Scailmont, December 16th, 1810. His early education was intrusted to private tutors, under the eyes of his father, who was a laureate of the ancient University of Louvain. He afterward completed his studies of humanity and philosophy with his brother Adolph, who was successively Belgian minister of foreign affairs and minister of state.
In the national movement, from which sprung the independence of Belgium, the two brothers, though yet young, distinguished themselves as publicists during this glorious epoch of patriotism.
In 1832, M. Dechamps entered the seminary of Tournai, studied afterward in the Catholic university of Mechlin, and concluded his theological course at Louvain, where he was ordained priest, December, 1834, by Cardinal Sterckx.
Having soon after joined the Redemptorist congregation, Father Dechamps made his novitiate in 1835. Five years later, his career as a preacher began, and in this capacity he greatly distinguished himself.
After the death of Queen Louise of Belgium, in obedience to the express desire of that pious princess, he was charged with the religious instruction of the royal princes, and of the Princess Charlotte. Rev. Father Dechamps was named Bishop of Namur, September, 1865. Two years later, he was transferred to the archdiocese of Mechlin, in which Brussels is included; and since the opening of the council he has been elevated by the holy see to the primacy of Belgium.
Monsgr. Dechamps has written several valuable works, the most important of which are: 1st. The Free Examination of the Truth of Faith; 2d. The Divinity of Jesus Christ; 3d. The Religious Question resolved by Facts; or, Certainty in Matters of Religion; 4th. Pius IX. and Contemporary Errors; 5th. The New Eve, or, Mother of Life, all of which have been translated into most of the languages of Europe.
The style of Archbishop Dechamps is calm, concise, and profound, blended with an attractive unction. His round and pleasing countenance bears upon it the stamp of intellect and energy. Like so many of his gifted countrymen, the prelate of Mechlin unites in his person the mental activity of the Frenchman with the solidity of the German.
John Baptist Simor, Archbishop of Strigonium and Primate of Hungary, was born August 24th, 1813, in the ancient Hungarian city of Fehervar, which is memorable in history as being the place where the kings of Hungary were formerly crowned and buried.
He pursued his philosophical course in the archiepiscopal lyceum of Magy-Szombat, and his course of theology in the University of Vienna, which honored him with the title of doctor of sacred theology. After the successful completion of his studies, he was ordained priest of the archdiocese of Strigonium in 1836.
Appointed, first, assistant pastor of a church in Pesth, Father Simor soon after received a professor's chair in the university of that city, and subsequently filled several responsible positions, both in the government of souls and in instructing the more advanced candidates for the ministry in a higher course of theology.