Armand-Benjamin Caillau (22 October 1794 – 1850) was a French Catholic priest, a missionary and writer. Caillau was born in Paris. Ordained in 1818, he was successively a member of the Missions de France, rector of Sainte-Geneviève (rue dEnfer) and chaplain of the Infirmerie Marie-Thérèse (92 avenue Denfert-Rochereau). He joined, in 1834, the Fathers of Mercy, newly re-organized by Rauzan. His love of missionary life made him decline episcopal honours and a chair at the Sorbonne, but was no obstacle to his literary pursuits. He died in Paris in 1850. Besides many contributions to the Bibliographie Catholique, Caillau wrote Instructions sur loraison mentale (Paris, 1833), a French translation of Tertullians De Spectaculis (Paris, 1835), several monographs on Our Ladys Sanctuaries: Roc-Amadour (1834), Loretto (1843), N.D. de Puy (1846), Litanies du St. Nom de Jesus (Paris, 1845), Les nouveaux illuminés (Michel Vintras) (Orléans, 1849), etc.
He is best known, however, by the following works:
Thesaurus Patrum (Paris, 1823-5), a patristic digest modelled on Merzs Thesaurus biblicus, with an introduction to patrology.
Collectio selecta Patrum (Paris 1829-1842), 133 octavo volumes, undertaken in collaboration with Marie Nicolas Sylvestre Guillon and suspended at the announcement of Jacques-Paul Mignes "Patrology". The insertion of new sermons under the name of Augustine of Hippo (P.L., XLVII) brought about a controversy between the two editors.
Histoire de la Vie des Saints (Paris 1835-1840), four octavo volumes, and also (Paris 1863) five octavo volumes, written in collaboration with Louis Juste.
S. Gregorii Nazianzeni opera (Paris, 1842), two folio volumes (also P.G., XXVII and XXVIII), an edition, partly from the manuscript notes of D. Clémencet, reviewed by Abel-François Villemain in the Journal des Savants (1845 and 1847) Rhetorica Patrum (Paris, 1838), three volumes never completed.
A similar project of a Bibliotheca Mariana resulted only in the publication of a few opuscula of Ephrem the Syrian, Bonaventure, Idiota (Jordan), and the Marial monographs noticed above. Caillau also re-edited Merzs Thesaurus biblicus (1822), LAnnée sainte (1826), vols. III and IV of D. Ceilliers Histoire des auteurs sacrés (1838-9); and Lettres de Scheffmacher (1839).
Marie Nicolas Sylvestre Guillon (January 1, 1760, Paris – October 16, 1847, Montfermeil), was a French ecclesiastic, and librarian. He was a librarian and almoner in the household of the princesse de Lamballe. After she was killed in 1792, he fled to the provinces, where, under the name of Pastel, he practiced medicine. A man of facile conscience, he afterward served in turn under Napoleon, the House of Bourbon and the House of Orléans and became canon of St Denis, bishop of Morocco and dean of the Sorbonne. In May 1831, he administered Extreme Unction to the republican Abbé Grégoire despite the opposition of Hyacinthe-Louis de Quélen, Archbishop of Paris.