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Maksimilian Ryllo
Ryllo Maksimilian Stanislaw
(31.12.1802 – 17.06.1848)
Jesuit, missionary in Europe, Africa and the Middle East; rector of Collegium Urbanum in Rome
Ryllo was born in a village Podorosk, Volkovysk district, Grondo region. In 1817 he finished school in a village Lyskovo, Pruzhany district, Brest region, and then he graduated from Polotsk Jesuit Academy with the degree of master of philosophy. In 1820 he entered the Medical Faculty of Wilno University. At the end of that year he left to Rome, where he joined the Jesuit Order. In 1824–1826 in the Roman Collegium (Gregorian University) Ryllo studied philosophy, in the 1830–1834 ? theology. In 1833–1836 he taught at Jesuit schools. In 1836–1837 in Lebanon he explored the possibilities of Church Union and opening a big collegium and a catholic academy in the Middle East. In addition to numerous contacts with representatives of the Oriental Churches, Maksimilian Ryllo carried out archaeological excavations. He became a pioneer and the first researcher of ruins of the ancient Babylon, when only in the late XIX century systematic archaeological excavations began. In 1837 he returned to Rome and gave the Vatican museum a rich collection of archaeological artifacts from Babylon. Maksimilian Ryllo was elected a member of the Pontifical Academy of Archaeology and a member of the Society of Orientalism in France. In 1838 he presented to Pope Gregory XVI a plan of building a collegium in Asia. In 1839–1841 he led the Jesuit mission in Syria. During this period in Beirut he founded an educational institution with a printing establishment, a library, workshops, classrooms and museums, where one hundred boys were taught. In 1875 the institution was turned into Saint Joseph’s University. In 1841–1843 Ryllo was a missionary in Malta, where he organized convictus for boys. In 1843–1844 he was a preacher in Sicily. In 1844–1846 he was the rector of the Collegium Urbanum in Rome. In 1846 he was appointed by Pope Pius IX the apostolic vicar of Central Africa in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. In 1848 he undertook a journey to Cairo and Alexandria (Egypt). Maksimilian Ryllo died during a mission trip and was buried in Khartoum. In 1900 his remains were reburied in the Jesuitical cemetery in Cairo (Egypt).
Literature:
1. Czerminski M. O. Maksymilian Ryllo Towarzystwa Jezusowego misyonarz apostolski. T. I–II. Krakow, 1911–1912.
2. Koscialkowski S. O. Maksymilian Ryllo, T.J. 1802–1848. Bejrut, 1946.
3. Karol A. Jezuita romantyczny – o. Maksymilian Ryllo. Krakow, 1992.
© National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 2011
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