Bralion, Nicolas pr, a French Oratorian and ecclesiastical writer, b. at Chars-en-Vexin, France, c. 1600; d. at Paris, 11 May, 1672. He joined the Paris Oratory in 1619, and, in 1625, went to Rome, where he remained fifteen years at San Luigi dei Francesi, then an Oratorian establishment, devoting his time to research and literary work. There he published an Italian translation of Cardinal de Bérulle’s “ Elévation’? (1640) and of a portion of Ribadeniera’s “Saintly Lives”. He returned to Paris about 1640 and spent the rest of his life at the Church of St. Honoré. Among other works he published “Vie de St. Nicholas, archevéque de Myre” (1646); “ Pallium Archiepiscopale” (1648—the first serious study published in France on the significance, tradition, and use of that vestment); “ Histoire chrétienne” (1656); “La curiosité de l’une et l’autre Rome” (1655-59); “Cxremoniale Canonicorum” (1657—a practical guide on Roman lines); “Histoire de la sainte chapelle de Lorette” (1665).
Incoup, Essai de bibliogr. oratorienne (Paris, 1882), 27; Michaud, Biog, univ. (Paris, 1811), V, 477.
John B. Peterson.