BEISEL, STEPHAN. - Art historian, born in Aachen on 21 April 1841, died at Valkenburg (Netherlands) on 31 July 1915. Jesuit from 1871. From 1880 he was assisted by a collaborator of the journal Stimmen aus Maria Laach. His extensive critical output focused on the art of the Romanesque period (Die Baugeschichte des Doms des hl. Victor zu Xanten, Freiburg im Br. 1883, later combined with two other works in a 2nd ed. under the title: Die Bauführung des Mittelalters, ibid. 1886), particularly in the Rhineland (Geschichte der Trierer Kirchen...; 2 vols., 2nd ed., ibid. 1890); then the history of the cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Geschichte der Verehrung Mariens, ibid. 1909–13), of relics and pilgrimages of the saints (Geschichte der Verehrung der Heiligen und ihrer Reliquien in Deutschland, ibid. 1890–92) in the Middle Ages. He devoted more direct attention to Italian art in three works: Vatikanische Miniaturen (ibid. 1893); Fra’ Angelico (ibid. 1895; French trans., Lille 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 (Betrachtungsbunke für alle Tage des Kirchenjahres, 3rd ed., ibid. 1904–11) and oversaw the reprint of Atz’s work, Die kirchliche Kunst in Wort und Bild in Deutschland (4th ed., Regensburg 1915).