SIFFRIN, PETER

Liturgist; b. Bildstock (Saar), Germany, Oct. 1, 1886; d. Trier, June 6, 1963. He studied the humanities at Prüm, and philosophy and theology at the seminary of Trier. He was ordained Aug. 1, 1912, and was named curate at Kyllburg. In 1913 he joined the Benedictine monastery of St. Joseph, Gerleve (Westfalen); he moved to Dormition Abbey, Jerusalem, in 1928; and he lived at St. Matthias Abbey, Trier, until 1941 when it was suppressed by the Nazis. In 1949 he went to Rome and was subsequently appointed a consultor of the Congregation of Rites and for Vatican Council II; at the same time he taught liturgy and served as a member of the Liturgical Institute at St. Anselmo, Rome, and as an extraordinary member of the Abt-Herwegen Institute for liturgical and monastic research at the Abbey of Maria Laach, Germany. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in theology by the theological faculty of Trier in 1960. He created a complete alphabetical index of the initia of the Latin prayers of medieval liturgical books, especially the Sacramentaries. He collaborated with K. mohlberg in editing the Leonine and Gelasian Sacramentaries, the Missale Francorum, Missale Gallicanum Vetus, and the Missale Gothicum. Very useful are his concordances to these Sacramentaries and his word index to the Leonianum. He wrote numerous articles on liturgical subjects in Ephemerides Liturgicae, Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, Enciclopedia Cattolica, and the second edition of the Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche.

Bibliography: l. eizenhÖfer, Ephemerides liturgicae 78 (1964) 63–65.

[l. eizenhÖfer]