KRAUS, Franz-Xaver. – Priest, archaeologist, historian, man of letters, born in Trier on 18 Sept. 1840, died at Sanremo on 12 Dec. 1901. He was the greatest Catholic archaeologist and historian whom Germany produced in the past century: he is called the German De Rossi.
Ordained priest in 1864, the following year he obtained the doctorate at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau. He also exercised the pastoral ministry at Pfalzel near Trier; then, in 1870, he moved to Rome, where he contributed notably to the development of the German Archaeological Institute, coming into contact with the most renowned scholars of historical and archaeological studies, especially G. B. De Rossi. In 1872 he became professor of the history of art at the University of Strasbourg, and in 1878 at that of Freiburg im Breisgau, holding the chair of ecclesiastical history. K. also concerned himself with Italian literature and politics, tending toward French Catholic liberalism. His writings are extremely numerous and varied; the principal works to be recalled are: *Die christliche Kunst in ihren frühesten Anfängen, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der neuesten Resultate der Katakomben* (Leipzig 1872); *Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte* (Trier 1872–73); *Roma sotterranea*, *Die römischen Katakomben* (Freiburg 1873); *Kunst und Altertum in Elsass-Lothringen* (Strasbourg 1877–92); *Real-Encyklopädie der christlichen Altertümer* (Freiburg im Breisgau 1882–86); *Die christlichen Inschriften der Rheinlande*, I: von den Anfängen des Christentums bis zur Mitte des 8. Jahrhunderts and II: bis zur Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts (Freiburg im Breisgau 1892–94). He also published a study on Dante, his life and his work, and one on the illustrations by Luca Signorelli for Dante’s *Divine Comedy*; furthermore, two volumes of essays in which he also treated F. Petrarch and A. Rosmini; noteworthy are his letters on ecclesiastical politics.