Father Ratisbonne

A carte-de-visite portrait of Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne (1814-1884), a French Jew who converted to Christianity. He became a Jesuit priest and missionary, and was later a co-founder of the Congregation of Our Lady of Scion, a religious order dedicated to the conversion of the Jews to Christianity.

Born at Strasbourg on 1 May 1814, the eleventh of thirteen children, his father was Auguste Ratisbonne of the family of Jewish bankers. An older brother, Théodore, converted to Christianity in 1827 and became a Catholic priest in 1830.

On at trip to Rome in January 1842, Alphonse experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary while visiting the Church of Sant-Andrea delle Fratte and was subsequently baptised into the Catholic Church, taking the additional name Marie to honour the instrument of his conversion. In June of the same year he joined the Society of Jesus and was ordained a priest in 1848.

His brother Théodore had been one of the founders of the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion in 1847, which worked for the conversion of the Jews to the Christian faith. Although Alphonse initially undertook mission work among the convicts in the prisons of Brest, his 1850 he joined his brother in his mission to their own people. With the blessing of the Pope Pius XII he left the Society of Jesus to join his brother. In 1852 they formed the male branch of the congregation and in 1855 Alphonse moved to Palestine to establish a convent for the Sisters of the congregation. He spent the rest of his life there.

In 1858 he founded the Convent of Ecco Homo in Jerusalem for the Sisters of Sion. In 1860 he built the Convent of St John on a hilltop in Ein Karen, then a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem. In 1874 he established the Ratisbonne Monastery for the priests of the congregation.

He died at Ein Karen on 6 May 1884 and was buried in the convent’s cemetery.

Photographed by Bisson Frères of Paris.