PROBST, FERDINAND

Liturgist; b. Ehingen, Germany, March 28, 1816; d. Breslau, Dec. 26, 1899. After his ordination in 1840, he served as a curate in Ellwangen. The following year he was sent for higher studies to the University of Tübingen. In 1843 he was appointed pastor at Allgäu. In 1851 his doctorate in theology was conferred by the University of Tübingen. He was called to teach pastoral theology at the University of Breslau in 1864; he became a canon in 1886, rector of the university in 1889, a domestic prelate in 1890, and dean of the cathedral chapter of Breslau in 1896. As the author of a prodigious number of books and articles, most of which deal with the liturgy, Probst gained a widespread reputation for scholarship. His studies were limited to the liturgy of the Church as it developed in the first few centuries. They manifested a facile acquaintance with patristic literature; but the author's conclusions were criticized in some quarters as being largely concoctions of his own imagination. Notable among Probst's works are his Kirchliche Benedictionen und ihre Verwaltung (Tübingen 1857), Liturgie der drei ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte (Tübingen 1870), Sakramente und Sakramentalien in den drei ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten (Tübingen 1872), Geschichte der katholischen Katechese (Breslau 1886), Liturgie des 4. Jahrhunderts und deren Reform (Münster 1893), and Die abendländische Messe vom 5. bis zum 8. Jahrhundert (Münster 1896).

Bibliography: h. leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, ed. f. cabrol, h. leclercq, and h. i. marrou, 15 v. (Paris 1907–53) 9.2:1731–32. h. hurter, Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae, 5 v. in 6 (3d ed. Innsbruck 1903–13); v. 1 (4th ed. 1926) 5.2:2066–67. b. fischer, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 8:780.

[c. r. meyer]