MEISTERMANN, BARNABÉ. – A Palestinologist, missionary, architect, and Franciscan, born on 27 March 1850 at Pfaffenheim (Alsace), died in Jerusalem on 29 September 1923. He was ordained a priest in 1873 and became a religious in 1875; from 1882 to 1887 he was an apostolic penitentiary at S. Maria degli Angeli (Assisi). In 1887 he was summoned to Rome to supervise the work on the new Collegio di S. Antonio, but that same year he went as a missionary to China, where, at Chefu, he built an orphanage hospital; then, in 1891, at Tung-erh-kow (apostolic vicariate of Taiyuanfu, northern Shansi), he built the first Franciscan friary in China. From 1893 until 1923 he lived in the Holy Land and, alongside his pastoral work, devoted himself especially to archaeological and topographical studies; during this period he published his most important works.
Works: La Portiancule (Foligno 1884); Le Mont Tabor (Paris 1900, Jerusalem 1901); Deux questions d'archéologie palestinienne (Jerusalem 1902); Le prétoire de Pilate (Paris 1902); Questions de topographie palestinienne (Jerusalem 1903); Le tombeau de la Ste Vierge à Jérusalemme (there 1903); La patrie de St Jean-Baptiste (Paris 1904); La ville de David (there 1905); Nouveau guide de Terre Sainte (3rd ed. there 1936 [1st ed. there 1907]; Italian translation, Florence 1925); Guide du Nil au Jourdain (there 1909); Getsemani (there 1920). Numerous articles in the Catholic Encyclopedia (New York). Although M.’s works were strongly disputed, more recent excavations have confirmed his views.
Arduino Kleinhans