Ratisbonne, Theodore: - Fr. Marie Théodore Ratisbonne, 1802-1884. Fr. Ratisbonne was one of nine children of a family of Jewish bankers in Strasbourg. He was raised in luxury and educated at the Royal College of his native city. At the age of manhood, he was considered a leader among his people, who unanimously elected him to replace Samson Libermann when the latter converted to Catholicism in 1824. The conversion of Libermann and two other of his friends led him to study the Bible and the history of the Church. For two years he pondered as the work of grace went on within him, and he was baptized in 1826. He added to his name that of "Mary" and thus became "Marie Theodore Ratisbonne." He entered the seminary, and received Holy Orders in 1830. First teacher at the Minor Seminary and vice-rector of the cathedral of Strasbourg, he worked in his native diocese until 1840, when he became vicar and assistant director of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Victories in Paris. It was while in this city, in 1842, that his brother Alphonse, a free-thinker animated with the greatest hatred against Christianity, was miraculously converted to Catholicism at Rome. Stimulated by his brother Marie Alphonse, in 1843 Fr. Ratisbonne founded the Congregation of Our Lady of Zion for the Christian education of Jewish boys and girls, was appointed superior general, and opened Houses. Alphonse went on to be ordained a Jesuit priest. Pope Gregory XVI decorated Fr. Ratisbonne a Knight of St. Sylvester, complimented him for his Life and Times of St. Bernard, and granted his request to labour for the conversion of the Jews. Pope Pius IX gave him many marks of his affection, and Pope Leo XIII appointed him Apostolic Prothonotary. At his death he received the last Sacraments from the Archbishop of Paris, and the final blessing from Pope Leo XIII.