Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/737

 RATISBONNE

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RATRAMNUS

Haberl. Ignatius von Senestrey (1858-1906) com- pleted, with the help of King Louis I, the towers of the cathedral, founded the boys' seminaries at Ratis- bon and J?traubing, reformed the liturgy in accordance with the Roman model, and greatly promoted the religious life of the diocese by frequent tours of visita- tion, the establishment of new pastoral offices, the holding of popular missions, and the building of churches and schools. At the Vatican Council he belonged to the Commission on Faith, and was one of the most resolute champions of the dogma of the in- faUibility of the pope. In the ecclesiastico-political wars in Bavaria, especially since the appearance of the Old Catholic movement and its encouragement by Minister Lutz, von Senestrey always fearlessly and unjdeldingly contended for the rights of the Church. The pallium was conferred on him as a mark of dis- tinction by the pope in 1906. He was succeeded in 1906 by Antonius von Henle, who had occupied the See of Passau from 1901 to 1906.

Enhtjber, Co7iciliorum Ratisbonensium brevis recensio (Ratis- bon, 1768): Gemeiner, Chronik der Stadt u. des Hochstifts Regemburg ram Jahre US bis zum J. 1496 (4 vols., Ratisbon, 1816) : RiED, Codex chronologico-diptomnticus episcopatus Ratis- bonensis (2 vols., Ratisbon, 1816-17) ; Gumpoi zheimer, Gesch. der Stadt Regensburg (2 vols., Ratisbon, 1830-38) ; Wittmann, Gesch. der Reformation in der Oberpfah (Augsburg, 1847) : Janner, Gesch. der Bischofe von Regensburg (3 vols., Ratisbon, 1883-86), reaching to 1507; Malriket des Bislums Regensburg (2 vols., Ratisbon, 1863); von Waldersdorff, Regensburg in seiner Vergangenheit u. Gegenwarl (4th ed.. Ratisbon. 1896) ; Schlecht, Bayerm Kirchen-Prorinzen (Munich. 1902), 90 sq.; Scheglmaxn, Gesch. der Sdkularisation im rechtsrheinischen Bayern (3 vols., Ratisbon, 1903-07); Schratz and Dexgler, Regensburg (7th ed., Ratisbon, 1910); Hager. Die Kunstdenkmale des Konig- reichs Bayern: 11: Oberpfalz (Ratisbon, 1903 — ); Hildebhandt, Regensburg (Leipzig. 1910): Verhandlungen des hist. Vereins von Oberpfalz u. Regensburg (Ratisbon, 1831 — ); Schemalismus der Geistlichkeil des Bistums Regensburg (Ratisbon, 1910).

Joseph Lins.

Ratisbonne, Maria .\lphonse, a converted Jew, b. at Strasburg on 1 May, 1814; d. at Ain Karim near Jerusalem, on 6 May, 1.S84. He belonged to a wealthy and prominent Jewish family m Alsace. After studying law at Paris he became a member of his uncle's famous banking firm, and in 1841 was be- trothed to the daughter of his oldest brother. As she was only sixteen years old, the marriage was post- poned, and Ratisbonne entered upon a pleasure trip to the Orient. Though nominally a Jew, he was a radical infidel, a scoffer at religion, and, after the conversion of his brother Theodor, a rabid enemy of everj-thing Catholic. On his intended tour to the Orient, he came to Rome, where on 20 January, 1842, he was miraculously converted to Catholicism in the Church of S. Andrea delle Fratte by an apparition of the Blessed Virgin. After his conversion he assisted his brother, Theodor, in founding the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Sion in 1843, was ordained priest in 1847, and entered the Society of Jesus. Desirous, however, to devote himself entirely to the conversion of the Jews, he left the society with the consent of Pius IX, transplanted the Sisters of Sion to Jerusalem in 1855, and built for them in 1856 the large Convent of Ecce Homo with a school and an orphanage for girls. In 1860 he erected the Convent of St. John on the moun- tain at Ain Karim, together with a church and another orphanage for girls. Here Alphonse laboured with a few companions (Peres de Sion) for the conversion of Jews and Mohammedans until his death. For boys he erected the orphanage of St. Peter, near the Gate of Jaffa outside of Jerusalem, with a school for mechanical arts in the city.

De BrssifcRE. L'enfant de Marie (Paris, 1859); Hewit,_ Two miraeulowt conversions from Judaism in Catholic World, XXXIX (New York, 1884), 613-26; Rosenthal, Converlitenbilder aus dem 10. Jahrh.. Ill, I (Schaffhausen, 1869), 194^237; Narrazione storica delta prodigiosa apparizione di Maria SSma Immacolata e istantanea conversione alia fede callolica dell' ebreo Maria Alfonso Ratisbonne, avtenuta in Roma il JO gennaio 18.',S. nrlln chiesa parrocchiale di .S. Andrea delle Fralle, de' PP. Minimi di i'. Fran- cesco di Paolo (Rome, Vatican Press, 1892).

Michael Ott.

Ratisbonne, Maria Theodor, a distinguished preacher and writer, and director of the Archconfra- ternity of Christian Mothers, b. of Jewish parentage at Strasburg, 28 Dec, 1802; d. in Paris, 10 Jan., 1884. He was raised in luxury, was educated at the Royal Col- lege of his native city, and, at the age of manhood, was considered a leader among his people, who unan- imously elected him to replace Samson Liber- mann when the latter was con- verted in 1824. The conversion of his three friends, Emile Dreyfus, Alfred Mayer, and Samson Liber- mann, caused him to study the Bible and the history of the Church. For two years the work of grace went on within him, and finally he was baptized in 1826. He entered the seminary, and received Holy orders in 1830. He worked in his native diocese until 1840, when he became subdirector of the Confraternity of Notre Dame des Victoires at Paris. It was whilst in this city, in 1842, that his brother Alphonse, a free-thinker ani- mated with the greatest hatred against Chris- tianity, was miraculously converted at Rome, and suggested to him to secure a home for the education of Jewish children. Providence seemed to design him for the work, and answered his prayer for light by sending him the two da,ughters of a Jewish lady whom he subsequently converted. During the same summer he went to Rome; Gregory XVI decorated him a Knight of St. Sylvester, complimented him for his "Life of St. Bernard", and granted his request to labour for the conversion of the Jews. Houses were opened under the patronage of "Our Lady of Sion" for the Christian education of Jewish boys and girls. Pius IX gave Ratisbonne many marks of his affection, and Leo XIII appointed him prothonotary Apostolic. At his death he received the last Sacra- ments from the Archbishop of Paris, and the final blessing from Leo XIII. His chief works are: "Essai sur I'Education Morale" (1828); "Histoire de Saint-Bernard" (1841); "Meditations de Saint- Bernard sur le Present et Futur" (1853); "Le Manuel de la Mere Chretienne" (1860); "Questions Juives" (1868); "Nouveau Manuel des Mferes Chr6tiennes" (1870); "Le Pape" (1870); "Miettes Evangeliques" (1872); "Reponse aux Questions d'un Isra^hte de Notre Temps" (1878).

The Jewish Encyclopedia, X; Currier, History of Religious Orders; V.4PEREAU, Dictionnaire des Contemporains ; Lakousse, Grand Dictionnaire Universel; Hooan, Irish Monthly, XII; M. Th. Ratisbonne (Paris, 1904).

M.\RTiN A. Hehir.

Ratramnus (Rathramnus), a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Corbie, in the present Department of Somme; one of the most important ecclesiastical authors of the ninth century, d. after 868. Scarcely anything is known of his life. His best known work is a treatise on the Holy Eucharist, entitled "De corpore et sanguine Domini". It was written at the instance of the Emperor Charles the Bald, against a work of the same title by Paschasius Radbertus (q. v.). The basis of Ratramnus' s work is an attempt to solve the two questions: 1. Do we in the Holy