Talk:Serge de Beaurecueil

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by SonOfYoutubers talk 17:33, 27 July 2025 (UTC)

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• ... that after spending a "wretched childhood" dreaming of journeying to a faraway land, Serge de Beaurecueil became the only Catholic priest in Afghanistan?

• Source: Dallh, Minlib (2017). The Sufi and the Friar: A Mystical Encounter of Two Men of God in the Abode of Islam. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 20. ISBN 9781438466170.; Dallh, Minlib (20 April 2009). "Serge Laugier de Beaurecueil (1917–2005)". The Student's Companion to the Theologians: 369. doi:10.1002/9781118427170.ch49.

"At any rate, two words summarize his early childhood: fear and dream. These sentiments fueled an unquenchable desire to go as far as possible from Paris. For certain, the longing to go away stems mainly from a lonely childhood experience. He refers to it as “a wretched childhood.” In dreams he found the remedy against fear and loneliness. He hoped for a journey that would take him away from France, from all that his childhood symbolized." For example, he saw himself as the son of an Indian Rajah in exile and hoping to return home one day.”; "In the midst of a Muslim community, Serge lived his life as a Dominican friar and priest. He was the only Catholic priest in the country. He shared this unique experience of a Dominican friar among Muslims in two books: Nous avons partagé le pain et le sel (Cerf, 1965) and Prêtre des non-Chrétiens (Cerf, 1968)."

• • Reviewed:

Created by M.A.Spinn (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

M.A.Spinn (talk) 21:07, 2 July 2025 (UTC).

• article is new enough, well-written, and well-sourced. No QPQ needed. Hook is interesting. Earwig clears. Good to go, nihil obstat. ~Darth Stabro^{Talk • Contribs} 03:58, 6 July 2025 (UTC)

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Serge de Beaurecueil/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: M.A.Spinn (talk · contribs) 15:25, 31 July 2025 (UTC)

Reviewer: MCE89 (talk · contribs) 16:52, 21 February 2026 (UTC)

Good Article review progress box

Criteria: 1a. prose () 1b. MoS () 2a. ref layout () 2b. cites WP:RS () 2c. no WP:OR () 2d. no WP:CV () 3a. broadness () 3b. focus () 4. neutral () 5. stable () 6a. free or tagged images () 6b. pics relevant () Note: this represents where the article stands relative to the Good Article criteria. Criteria marked are unassessed

Hello, I'll take this review. Looks like a great piece of work from my initial read — will add my comments in the next day or so. MCE89 (talk) 16:52, 21 February 2026 (UTC)

Initial checks

• Image: Y Infobox image is compliant with the NFCC and has an appropriate NFUR. Other images are freely licensed
• Copyright: Y No issues on Earwig. Will do further checks for close paraphrasing as part of my spotchecks
• Stability and authorship: Y No issues

Prose review

Overall this is very well-written, no concerns regarding prose. A few nitpicks and suggestions:

• ...scholar of Abdullah Ansari, an Afghan Sufi — Perhaps worth adding something like "an eleventh-century Afghan Sufi saint" to provide a bit of added context?
• ...he served as the only Catholic priest in the Muslim community of Afghanistan — I would remove "the Muslim community of", or at least replace "community" with "country". At the moment this reads as if there were other Catholic priests in Afghanistan's non-Muslim communities, whereas the source says that he was the only Catholic priest in the country
• You could consider wikilinking "religious vocation" to Vocational discernment in the Catholic Church
• Optional, but you could add inter-language links to Georges Chehata Anawati and Jacques Jomier
• To avoid forcing readers to click on the links to understand the text (see MOS:NOFORCELINK), I'd suggest adding a couple of words briefly introducing the meaning of nouvelle théologie and Sufism
• He practiced a spirituality of intercession for religious others in the style of Louis Massignon. — I'd suggest spelling this out a little more for readers who won't necessarily understand the meaning of a "spirituality of intercession"
• conscious of the Qur'an's remarks about priests and monks — What remarks is this referring to?
• Suggest adding a couple of words introducing de Foucauld and Griffiths (e.g. "the Catholic priests Charles de Foucauld and Bede Griffiths")
• ...he published a memoir in 1985 entitled Un chrétien en Afghanistan in 1985 as well as Mes enfants de Kaboul in 1992 as well as editions of Abdullah Ansari — Suggest rephrasing this to smooth the language, as you currently repeat "in 1985" and "as well as" twice

Source review

• Sources all appear suitably reliable, and the reference layout and format is sufficient to meet the GA criteria
• A brief search for unused sources didn't suggest any major gaps in breadth

This table checks 4 passages from throughout the article (21.1% of 19 total passages). These passages contain 4 inline citations (19.0% of 21 in the article). Generated with the Veracity user script. MCE89 (talk) 11:49, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

This is great! The suggested tweaks I can certainly take into account. I also managed to acquire a French-language biography of him in addition to some primary sources which may be helpful for smoothing out some of the details. M.A.Spinn (talk) 00:45, 25 February 2026 (UTC)

Your redlink reminders also remind me that I need to get around to writing those articles in English! In due time... M.A.Spinn (talk) 00:46, 25 February 2026 (UTC)

Looks good! It looks like you've covered off all of my comments, so I'm happy to go ahead and pass this. Congrats on the GA! MCE89 (talk) 10:23, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

Reference #	Letter	Source	Archive	Status	Notes
De Beaurecueil was initially attracted to the Carmelites. However, a priest encouraged him to pursue a vocation with the Dominicans, and after finding himself "mesmerized" by a visit to a Dominican priory, he opted to join them instead. Despite some opposition from his father, he entered the novitiate at Amiens on 14 October 1935.
4		Dallh 2017, pp. 21–23.
After his ordination, De Beaurecueil arrived in Cairo as a founding member of the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies, rejoining Jacques Jomier and Georges Anawati. As Georges Anawati had opted to study classical Islamic philosophy and Jacques Jomier to study contemporary Islamic thought, De Beaurecueil embarked on a program of study of Islamic mysticism. Osman Yahya, a scholar of Ibn Arabi, suggested he study Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari or Abdullah Ansari. Louis Massignon counseled him in a letter to study Ansari, as the Jesuit Paul Nwiya was already researching Ibn Ata Allah. To facilitate this, De Beaurecueil began studying Persian under Cyprian Rice, a British Dominican friar who had recently arrived in Cairo, and paleography under Pierre Nautin, a French Dominican friar who specialized in patristics.
8		Dallh 2017, pp. 37–39.
In 1962, he was invited to a conference in Kabul commemorating the ninth lunar centennial of the death of Abdullah Ansari. After the conference, he was invited by the minister of education to work as a professor at the University of Kabul. He received permission from his religious superiors to accept this offer and moved to Afghanistan in 1963 as a professor of paleography and the history of Sufism.
12		Dallh 2017, p. 50.
Afghanistan Demain is a non-governmental organization founded to carry on De Beaurecueil's legacy of caring for poor children in Afghanistan.
21		oasiscenter.eu

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.