[f. Bolland, name of a Flemish Jesuit of the 17th c. + -IST.] pl. The Jesuit writers who continued the work called Acta Sanctorum, begun by John Bolland.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Bollandists … certain Jesuits of Antwerp … employed in collecting the lives and acts of the saints.
a. 1843. Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk., Ser. II. 15. A question which the Bollandists ask in a note.
1883. G. Salmon, in Contemp. Rev., Oct., 518. The history of St. Patrick’s purgatory is … supported by the grave authority of the Bollandists.
