Aquiles Gerste (July 2, 1854 - November 27, 1920) was a

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

, Jesuit,

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

, and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...

who is known for his

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

and linguistic studies of the

indigenous peoples of Mexico Indigenous peoples of Mexico ( es, gente indígena de México, pueblos indígenas de México), Native Mexicans ( es, nativos mexicanos) or Mexican Native Americans ( es, pueblos originarios de México, lit=Original peoples of Mexico), are those ...

. Gerst entered the Society of Jesus on October 3, 1873 and was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform var ...

a priest ten years later. In 1885, he went to

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

and became prefect of a college at

Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

. He became fluent in French, Latin, Spanish, German and

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have small ...

. He became interested in the culture of the

Rarámuri people The Rarámuri or Tarahumara is a group of indigenous people of the Americas living in the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. They are renowned for their long-distance running ability. Originally, inhabitants of much of Chihuahua, the Rarámuri r ...

, with whom he lived as a missionary. When he returned to Europe, he collaborated with

Carlos Sommervogel Carlos Sommervogel (8 January 1834 – 4 March 1902) was a French Jesuit scholar. He was author of the monumental ''Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus'', which served as one of the major references for the editors of the Catholic Encyclop ...

on the ''Bibliographie d'auteurs de la Compagnie de Jésus'', While in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, he was elected a corresponding member of the

Academia Mexicana de la Lengua The Academia Mexicana de la Lengua (variously translated as the Mexican Academy of Language, the Mexican Academy of the Language, the Mexican Academy of Letters, or glossed as the Mexican Academy of the Spanish Language; acronym AML) is the corr ...

. He died in Rome.León-Portilla, 2004; 222

Works

*''Archeologie et Bibliographie Mexicaines'' Brussels: Polleunis, Ceuterick et Lefébure, 1888 *
Notes sur la médecine et la botanique des anciens Mexicains
' Rome, Impr. Polyglotte vaticane, 1909 *''Rapport sur un voyage d'exploration dans la Tarahumara 1914-1915'' Tipografia Pontificia Nell'istituto Pio IX, 1914

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerste 1854 births 1920 deaths 20th-century Belgian Jesuits Jesuit missionaries Belgian philologists Linguists from Belgium Roman Catholic missionaries in Mexico Belgian Roman Catholic missionaries Belgian expatriates in Mexico Missionary linguists 19th-century Belgian Jesuits