HORNER, ANTOINE. — Born in Schönenburg (Alsace) on 20 June 1827, died 18 May 1880.
Having entered the Congregation of the Holy Spirit in 1850, he was sent to the island of La Réunion in 1854. In 1863 he was chosen to direct the establishment of the Spiritan Fathers on the eastern coast of Africa. In Zanzibar he worked assiduously for the ransom of enslaved children, whom he gathered in an orphanage. In 1866 he undertook exploratory journeys on the African continent, which led to the foundation of Bagamoyo (1868). Further explorations in Oukami and Oussagara, and the foundation of Mondah in 1877. In 1879 he returned to France.
BIBL.: Anon., Obituary, in Bulletin de la Congrégation du St Esprit, 11 (1880), p. 706.