BEISSEL, STEPHAN. - Art historian, b. at Aquisgrana on 21 April 1841, d. at Valkenburg (Holland) on 31 July 1915. A Jesuit from 1871. From 1880 he was a regular contributor to the journal Stimmen aus Maria Laach. His extensive critical output dealt with the art of the Romanesque period (Die Baugeschichte des Doms des hl. Victor zu Xanten, Friburgo in Br. 1883, a work combined with two others in a 2nd ed. under the title: Die Bauführung des Mittelalters, ibid. 1886), chiefly in the Rhineland (Geschichte der Trierer Kirchen..., 2 vols., 2nd ed., ibid. 1899); then with the history of the cult of the Blessed Virgin (Geschichte der Verehrung Marias, ibid. 1909-13), of relics and of the pilgrimages of saints (Geschichte der Verehrung der Heiligen u. ihrer Reliquien in Deutschland, ibid. 1890-92), in the Middle Ages. He dealt more directly with Italian art in three works: Vatikanische Miniaturen (ibid. 1893); Fra' Angelico (ibid. 1895; French trans., Lilla 1899); and Bilder aus der Geschichte der altchristlichen Kunst und Liturgie in Italien (ibid. 1900).
He also left a collection of meditations for every day of the year (Betrachtungspunkte für alle Tage des Kirchenjahres, 3rd ed., 10 vols., ibid. 1904-11) and edited the reprint of the work by Az, Die kirchl. Kunst in Wort und Bild in Deutschland (4th ed., Ratisbona 1915).