Johann Peter Kirsch


Johann Peter Kirsch was a Luxembourgish ecclesiastical historian and biblical archaeologist.

Life

Johann Peter Kirsch was born in Dippach, Luxembourg, the son of Andreas and Katherine Didier Kirsch. He began his high school education at the Atheneum, and then went to the seminary. He was ordained a priest on August 23, 1884. That autumn he was sent to Rome to attend the Collegio Teutonico. From 1884 to 1890 he studied archeology, paleography and diplomacy at the Collegio Apollinare and at other papal universities in Rome. Kirsch was a student of renowned archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi. In 1887 he was a co-founder of the "Roman Quarterly".
In 1888 Kirsch became the first Director of the Historical Institute of the Görres Society in Rome. From 1889 to 1932 he was professor of patristics and biblical archaeology at the University of Fribourg, where Clemens August Graf von Galen was one of his students. In 1907 he founded the "Swiss Journal of Church History". Kirsch did extensive studies on the early churches of Rome. He also carried out fundamental research on curial financial management in the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1925, Pope Pius XI asked Kirsch to direct the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana in Rome. In 1932, Kirsch was made a prothonotary apostolic.
Monsignor Kirsch contributed many articles to the Catholic Encyclopedia. He died in Rome on February 4, 1941, and is buried at the Campo Santo Teutonico.

Works