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

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

, philologist, and linguist who is known for his ethnographic and linguistic studies of the indigenous peoples of Mexico. Gerst entered the Society of Jesus on October 3, 1873 and was ordained a priest ten years later. In 1885, he went to Mexico as a missionary 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 smaller ...

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