Arshag Chobanian (Armenian: Արշակ Չոպանեան; 15 July 1872 – 9 June 1954), was an Armenian short story writer, journalist, editor, poet, translator, literary critic, playwright, philologist, and novelist.
Extract from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arshag_Chobanian
To be completed.
Historian, public speaker, journalist.
Avraam Sergueïevitch Norov (ASN)
Bishop Porphyry Uspenskij (EPU)
The beginning of the Russian presence in Jerusalem is connected with the name of the prominent
ecclesiastic, the first chief of the Russian mission in Palestine, Archimandrite (later Bishop) Porphyry Uspenskij. Porphyry (his secular name was Constantine Alexandrovich Uspenskij, 1804-83) was born in the family of a church lector in the provincial town of Kostroma. After finishing the local church school (1813-18), he studied in the Kostroma Theological Seminary (1818-24), and the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy (1825-29). After graduating from the Academy, he brought his monastic vows and was ordained deacon, and later priest. He started his career as a teacher in the Richelieu lyceum in Odessa. In 1838 he was appointed rector to the Kherson Theological Seminary and in 1840 priest to the Russian mission in Vienna. On November 14, 1842 the Russian Holy Synod delegated Porphyry to Jerusalem to gather information about the life of the Orthodox Christians in Palestine and Syria. His first stay in Jerusalem lasted from December 20, 1843 to August 7, 1844. On July 31, 1847 he was appointed chief of the first Russian ecclesiastical mission to Jerusalem, where he arrived in mid February 1848 and he stayed till the Crimean war (May 3, 1854). After the war Porphyry was not appointed head of the mission any more, and in 1860 he visited Jerusalem a third, and last time. During the years of Porphyry’s stay in Jerusalem he was not only busy with church and political activities, but also with intensive research work on the archeology and history of Palestine, Syria and Egypt, for which he gathered a huge collection of manuscripts and books. No other Russian representative in the Christian East of that time had a better knowledge of the life conditions of the non-Muslim population of Jerusalem.
Charles (Hyacinthe-Marie in religion) Coüasnon, o.p. (CC)
Born in Rennes in 1904, Charles Couäsnon is the son of an architect, a profession he also chose. He was admitted to the Beaux-Arts de Rennes in 1923, before completing his training at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. He obtained the title of architect graduated by the Government in 1933. He was later appointed ordinary architect of the historic monuments of Ille-et-Vilaine. In 1938, he built the Sainte-Anne chapel near Rennes. It was at this moment that he thought of entering the Dominican order. He was mobilized at the same time and spent three years in captivity, from June 1940 to April 1943.
He entered the novitiate in 1943 and made his profession in 1944. Ordained a priest on July 16, 1948, he was assigned in 1950 to the convent of Saint-Etienne, his only convent of assignment until his death in 1976. He came here to help Fr. de Vaux in his excavations as an architect, which he did at Tell el Far'ah. From 1952 to 1954, he resided in Casablanca to direct the construction of a Dominican convent, which he also did in Mosul afterwards. Then he resumed work with Fr. de Vaux in Qumran, where he was in charge of the overall surveys.
In the Holy Land, he was called upon on all sides, particularly for the Benedictine monastery in Bethlehem, the restoration of the Holy Anne's Church in Jerusalem, or the restoration of the Crusader Church in Abu Gosh.
But his life's work was to cooperate in the restoration of the Holy Sepulchre from 1962 to 1976. The progress of the work can be followed more accurately in his book The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Sweich Lectures, 1972, Oxford University Press, 1974.
The basilica had been damaged by a fire in 1808, and an earthquake in 1927 had worsened its condition. In 1954, the three Christian communities owning and using the basilica had succeeded in reaching an agreement to begin its restoration. Work began in 1962, with each community having its chief architect. Fr. Couäsnon was the local representative of Jean Trouvelot, Inspector General of French Historical Monuments, architect for the Custody. On site, a "Joint Technical Office" bringing together Couäsnon and his Greek and Armenian counterparts, carried out the work in constant liaison with the three chief architects, who had remained in Paris and Athens.
The first objective was the restoration of the 12th century Crusader church (transept crosspieces, Katholicon choir, pillars, ground floor ambulatory). This was completed in 1969. The restoration of the Rotunda, whose building had to be supported, was then carried out.
Fr. Couäsnon was struck by a heart attack in 1976, while driving with Fr. Dreyfus. He died immediately.
Claude (Marie-Emile in religion) Boismard, o.p. (CB)
Born on December 14, 1916 in Seiches-sur-le-Loir in Anjou, Claude Boismard entered the Dominican province of Lyon in 1935, after a bachelor's degree in philosophy, where he received the name Marie-Émile. After military service in the transmissions, immediately followed by the war, he was able to return to the studentate of Saint-Alban-Leysse in 1940, and was ordained a priest in April 1943. He continued his studies at the Saulchoir d'Etiolles and obtained the readership in theology with a thesis on the doxa in Paul's epistles. His superiors decided to have him continue his studies at the École Biblique, which he managed to join in January 1946, after the resumption of regular links.
It is the Master General of the Order who, at Fr. Benoit's request, decides on his definitive assignment to Jerusalem. He joined the faculty in January 1948, after passing the Bible Commission exams. He then specialized in Johannine literature; that is why, in 1948, he was entrusted with the Apocalypse for the edition of the first Jerusalem Bible. He did an excellent translation and a very innovative commentary.
In 1950, the Master of the Order appointed him Professor of the New Testament at the University of Fribourg. Benoit persuaded Fr. Spicq to take his place. Boismard was therefore able to return to Jerusalem and embark on new research on the fourth gospel and Catholic epistles.
He is also involved in a commented synopsis project promoted by Fr. Benoit. He composed about 70% of this synopsis, then the entire literary commentary. He was helped in this task by Fr. Arnaud Lamouille. The commentary appeared in 1972. The literary theories developed there were not unanimously accepted.
With Lamouille, Boismard then attacked the Acts of the Apostles and very quickly realized that the boundary between textual criticism and literary criticism was unstable (the book was indeed known in two versions, the Western text and the Alexandrian text). The result of the work of textual criticism appeared in 1985 in the form of the book Le texte occidental des Actes des Apôtres. Reconstruction and rehabilitation. He then undertook a literary examination of it, presented in the book Les Actes des deux Apôtres, published in 1990. In 1991, Fr. Lamouille, a victim of very serious eye problems, had to leave Jerusalem. Father Boismard lost with him his dearest collaborator.
Boismard then completed two studies begun with Lamouille: Le Diatessaron: from Tatien to Justin (1992) and the first volume of Un évangile préjohannique; Jean 1, 1-2, 12 (1993). He defends one of his dear ideas: the canonical version of the gospels would be longer than their original version. He taught at the School until 2001.
In 1984, he was made an officer of the National Order of Merit and, in 1988, Doctor Honoris causa of the University of Louvain. He died of cancer on April 23, 2004. In his last years, he had published a History of My Life (2002).
Claude Reignier Conder was born on December 29, 1848 in Cheltenham, England. He studied at University College London and at the Royal Military Academy of Woolwich.
He was appointed lieutenant in the Corps of Royal Engineers in 1870. He carried out geographical studies in Palestine from 1872 to 1874, in the company of Lieutenant Horatio Herbert Kitchener. He continued his fieldwork until 1882 with the financial support of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
He was promoted to captain in 1882. He participated in the Anglo-Egyptian war the same year with the aim of putting an end to the rebellion led by Ahmed Urabi. In Egypt, he was assigned to the army's intelligence services. His great knowledge of the Arab peoples and the East was widely used by the British army. He took part in the battle of Tel el-Kebir and the advance towards Cairo.
He retired in 1904 with the rank of colonel.
Conder died in Cheltenham, England on February 16, 1910.
Eran Laor was born in Slovakia, and was active in the Allied Intelligence Bureau, assisting in the Aliyah (immigration) of Jews to Israel.
After the establishment of the State, he served as a representative of the Jewish national institutions in Europe. Laor authored books of poetry and philosophy, and also wrote an autobiography.
Together with Shoshana Klein, Laor compiled a catalogue of the map collection entitled Maps of the Holy Land: Cartobibliography of Printed Maps, 1475-1900, published in New York in 1986.
One of the masters of the founding generation of the School was Félix- Marie Abel, o.p., born in Saint-Uze, in the Drôme, in 1878. He arrived as a novice in December 1897, and as soon as M.-J. Lagrange had identified his exceptional abilities, it was decided that he would remain in Jerusalem. He quickly became known for his mastery of Greek sources (texts and inscriptions), for the history and geography of Palestine. He wrote the historical part of Louis-Hugues Vincent's archaeological studies on Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron. He composed a large commentary of 1- 2 Maccabees (1949), books that he also translated for the fascicle edition of the Jerusalem Bible. For the second edition of the Jerusalem Bible, his work was largely taken up by Jean Starcky. Abel had also been asked to translate the Book of Joshua, which he was also commenting on at the time of his death.
Abel taught geography courses in Palestine at the Bible School for nearly 50 years. In 1932, he and Vincent carried out excavations on the site of the Byzantine Emmaus. In 1940, he was appointed consultant to the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
His three most enduring works remain: Grammar of the Biblical Greek followed by a selection of papyrus, Bible Studies series (1927), Geography of Palestine (I. 1933; II. 1938), and History of Palestine from the conquest of Alexander to the Arab invasion (1952). It is less well known that this scientist was an accomplished watercolorist, who wrote an illustrated guide to the Holy Land.
He died at the École Biblique on the eve of the 1953 Annunciation.