Guillaume de Jerphanion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Guillaume de Jerphanion S.J. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | 3 March 1877 |
| Died | 22 October 1948 (aged 71) |
| Notable work(s) | Une nouvelle province de l'art byzantin, les églises rupestres de Cappadoce (5 volumes, 1925-42 |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Catholic |
| Order | Society of Jesus |
Guillaume de Jerphanion, born at Pontevès in 1877, died in Rome on 22 October 1948,[1] was a French Jesuit, archaeologist and explorer of Cappadocia.
Source:[2]
Guillaume de Jerphanion was born on 3 March 1877, the third in a family of eight children. He came from a family of old nobility originating from Haute-Loire in France.[citation needed]
Rather than a career as a naval officer, he chose to join the Jesuits when he was 16 years of age.[citation needed]
In 1903 Guillaume was sent to Tokat in Turkey to teach science to Armenian children in one of the numerous schools founded by the Jesuits in Anatolia.[citation needed]
He remained in Tokat until 1907. During his time in Tokat he learned Turkish, a language he came to master perfectly. Before returning to France to study theology and be ordained a priest, he traveled through Anatolia (Amasya - Ankara - Samsun - Sivas...) and discovered Cappadocia.[citation needed]
About the Jesuit schools of Anatolia
Between 1881 and 1924, the Jesuits opened 11 free and mixed schools as well as 6 free schools for girls and 12 other fee-paying schools for boys and girls all over Anatolia. There were 550 students in all in 1886, 5,521 in 1914. The number of Jesuits serving in those schools peaked at just under 60. The language of instruction was French. The schools welcomed mainly Christian children but also, for "evening classes," non-Christians, such as Jews and the children of Turkish notables attracted by the French language, the language of diplomacy and commerce of the time. In the girls' schools, the Jesuits were assisted by many nuns. To keep the young people busy outside of school hours, the Jesuits organized conferences and activities (brass bands, music lessons, theater lessons, etc.)[3]
Returning to Turkey in 1911 Guillaume de Jerphanion was a member of the Jesuit community in Istanbul, and he organized his trips to Cappadocia from there.
World War I drove him away from Turkey. He served as an officer-interpreter with the French Légion d'Orient in Cyprus until 1918 then return to Turkey in 1921. While taking care of the publication of his work on the rock-cut churches of Cappadocia, he was also in charge of closing most of the schools and houses that the Jesuits owned in the east of the country.
Guillaume de Jerphanion left Turkey for good in 1927 to become professor of Christian archeology at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. He is elected as a member of the French Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in 1947. It was in Rome that he died in 1948.
Guillaume de Jerphanion, writer and photographer
Throughout his travels Guillaume de Jerphanion kept a journal in which he wrote many of his discoveries and impressions. Coming from a nobility attached to the land, he was touched by the great poverty that reigned in Anatolia. He was struck by the miserable situation of the peasants and their exploitation by the large landowners who rented the land to them.[4] At the same time as he wrote down his impressions, he took many photographs, of landscapes, rural scenes, people and monuments. Today his photos are scattered throughout the Jesuit archives in Beirut, Rome and Paris.
