RATISBONNE
659
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
