Meistermann, Barnabé

MEISTERMANN, BARNABÉ. - Palestinian scholar, missionary and architect, Franciscan, b. 27 March 1850 at Pfaffenheim (Alsace), d. at Jerusalem on 29 Sept. 1923. A priest in 1873, a religious in 1875, he was from 1882 until 1887 apostolic penitentiary at St. Mary of the Angels (Assisi). In 1887 he was called to Rome to supervise the works for the new College of St. Anthony, but in the 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 convent in China. From 1893 until 1923 he lived in the Holy Land and, alongside his work of the care of souls, he devoted himself especially to archaeological and topographical studies; in 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 (ibid. 1903); La patrie de St Jean-Baptiste (Paris 1904); La ville de David (ibid. 1905); Nouveau guide de Terre Sainte (3rd ed. ibid. 1936 [1st ed. ibid. 1907]; Italian trans., Florence 1925); Guide du Nil au Jourdain (ibid. 1909); Getsemani (ibid. 1920). Several articles in the Catholic Encyclopedia (New York). Although the works of M. have been much contested, more recent excavations have confirmed his opinions.