Image Details

Père Pierre Benoit—Dominican priest, resident of Jerusalem for 54 years, and one of the world’s most respected scholars of the archaeology and history of ancient Jerusalem.

Now 80 years old, Père Benoit took his vows as a Dominican at the age of 18. Sent by his order to the École Biblique et Archéologique Française in Jerusalem in 1932—a time when few members of the Roman Catholic clergy had a say in their assignments—Père Benoit demurs: “I was sent here, yes. I don’t regret it.”