Death of Simon Weber (March 12, 1929)

Simon Weber was a German orientalist and Armenian Studies scholar who wrote prolifically about Armenian medieval literature and history. 

He was born in Bohlingen (Germany) on January 1, 1866. He graduated from the Fribourg (Switzerland) High School in 1887 and from the Faculty of Theology of the local university in 1891. He was ordained priest in the same year and moved to Rome, where he continued his studies in Oriental and Armenian studies. He learned Armenian in Rome and Vienna. 

He started teaching at the University of Fribourg in 1896 and published his first article about Armenian studies in the same year. Over the next thirty years, he produced valuable studies about Eznik Koghbatsi’s Refutation of the Sects, the name Ararat in the Bible, Armenian liturgical hymns, history of Armenian ancient literature, the works of Eznik, Mambre, and other ancient writers, as well as the monographs Armenia in the Bible (in German, 1898; Armenian translation, 1901) and The Catholic Church in Armenia (in German, 1903). Weber translated Against Heresies, by Bishop Irenaeus of Lugdunum (now Lyon), from Armenian into German and Latin. This work of the second century has only reached us in its Armenian translation. He also translated fragments of Refutation of the Sects and other works into German. 

Simon Weber passed away on March 12, 1929, in Fribourg.