Samuel Gobat

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Gobat as a young man

Samuel Gobat (26 January 1799 – 11 May 1879) was a Swiss

Bishop of Jerusalem
from 1846 until his death.

Biography

Samuel Gobat was born at

Church Missionary Society.[1][2]

Samuel Gobat

In 1834 Gobat married Marie Christine Regine Zeller (1813–1879), daughter of Christian Heinrich Zeller (1779–1860), educator, pioneer of the

hymnologist
. They had ten children, among them:

  • Hanna Maria Sophie Gobat (1838–1922), married in 1859 Reverend John Zeller (1830–1902), missionary in Nazareth who later became the leader of the Gobat School in Jerusalem,
  • Sophie Rosine Dorothea ("Dora") Gobat
    (1842–1923), a missionary of St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission, married in 1867 Carl Heinrich Rappard (1837–1909), missionary in Alexandria for the Pilgrim Mission,
  • Maria Sophie Elisabeth Gobat (1844–1917), married in 1869 the Swiss publisher Paul Kober, and
  • Blandina Marianne Gobat (1850–1926), married Theodor Friedrich Wolters (1837–1910), pastor in Smyrna, missionary in Nazareth and Jerusalem.

His nephew was Charles Albert Gobat.

Missionary career

He visited Ethiopia twice, the first time from the beginning of 1830 to the end of 1832; returning to Europe, he took his wife Maria May, 1834. He then returned in March 1835, but his own ill health (he writes that he was confined to his bed, "suffering cruel pains") forced him to return to Europe in 1836. His journal of his stay in Ethiopia (Sejour en Abyssinie) was published in 1835 at Paris, and later translated into English as Journal of Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia.[3] From 1839 to 1842 lived in Malta, where he supervised an Arabic translation of the Bible. During this time he was a missionary of the Church Mission Society.

Episcopate in Jerusalem

Samuel Gobat and Marie Gobat (née Zeller)

In 1846 he was consecrated second

Michael Solomon Alexander. He carried on a vigorous mission as bishop for over thirty years, his diocesan school (so-called Bishop Gobat School, established 1847, now the Jerusalem University College[4]) and orphanage on Mount Zion being specially noteworthy.[1]

Unlike his predecessor Bishop Alexander, who preferred missioning Jews and Muslims, however, with the latter being forbidden to convert and to be missioned by Ottoman law, Gobat had resorted to proselytising among Christians of other, mostly Orthodox

High Church faction.[5]

Grave of Gobat and his wife Marie, Mt. Zion Cemetery, Jerusalem

In order to support Gobat's effort

Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin, co-founded Jerusalem's Association [de], a charitable organisation on 2 December 1852, also becoming its first president.[6] Gobat could found a number of charitable institutions with the help of funds raised by this Association. In the 1850s Gobat invited the Church Mission Society (CMS), of which he had previously been a missionary, to open Palestine as a field of mission, which they did.[7][8]

In 1866 Gobat integrated the

Ramle. However, most Jaffa congregants disliked the Anglican Rite and preferred to attend Metzler's services.[9] In 1871 he consecrated Christ Church, Nazareth, built under the supervision of John Zeller, a German CMS missionary. He also ordained the first Arab clergy of the diocese—Michael Ka'war and Seraphim Boutaji.[10]

Gobat and his wife died in Jerusalem and are buried in

Mount Zion Cemetery, there. A record of his life, largely autobiographical, was published at Basel in 1884, and an English translation at London in the same year.[1] Gobat was succeeded by Bishop Joseph Barclay
.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gobat, Samuel". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 165.
  2. ^ "The Church Missionary Atlas (Church Missionary Society)". Adam Matthew Digital. 1896. pp. 67–76. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  3. ISBN 978-0-8371-1416-3
  4. ^ In 1853 the school moved into a new building on Mount Zion, which is used by the Jerusalem University College since 1967.
  5. ^ Cf. Abdul Latif Tibawi, British Interest in Palestine 1800-1901: A Study of Religious and Educational Enterprise, London: Oxford University Press, 1961, pp. 237-255.
  6. ISBN 3-579-00245-7
  7. ^ "The Church Missionary Gleaner, December 1862". Missionary Work in Palestine. Adam Matthew Digital. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  8. ISBN 0521814561
    .
  9. ISBN 965-7109-03-5
  10. ^ Miller, Duane Alexander (October 2012). "Christ Church (Anglican) in Nazareth: a brief history with photographs" (PDF). St Francis Magazine. 8 (5). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-08.
Anglican Communion titles
Preceded by
Bishop of Jerusalem

1846–1879 		Succeeded by
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