House Colour - Purple

Father Theodore Ratisbonne, a distinguished preacher and writer, born of Jewish parentage at Strasburg in 1802.  He was raised in luxury, was educated at theRoyal College of his native city and was considered a leader among his people. The conversion of his three friends, caused him to study the Bible and the History of the Church. He was baptised in 1826.  He was ordained as a priest in 1830. He worked in his native diocese till 1840 when he became the sub-director of the Confraternity of Notre Dame des Victoires at Paris.

During the same summer he went to Rome, where Pope Gregory XVI decorated him a Knight 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. At his death he received the last sacraments from the Archbishop of Paris, and the final blessing from Leo XIII. He died in Paris in 1884.

The Emblem of Theodore House is ‘The Griffin’.  This is a mythological creature which has the body of the Lion and the head of the Eagle.

Theodore Leadership & Staff