RATISBONNE, ALPHONSE-MARIE:

By: Isidore Singer, Jacques Kahn

French convert to Catholicism; brother of Marie-Théodore Ratisbonne; born at Strasburg May 1, 1812; died at Jerusalem May 6, 1884. After taking his degree in law he visited Rome, where he abjured the Jewish faith (Jan. 20, 1842). He then entered the order of Notre Dame de Sion, after passing through his novitiate in the Society of Jesus. His conversion, under singular and romantic circumstances, became the subject of numerous pamphlets taking widely differing views of the matter. Ratisbonne founded a monastery at Jerusalem. He was the author of "Elévations sur les Litanies de la Sainte Vierge" (1847).

S. J. Ka.