Commemoration of Father Maurice Borrmans

On Saturday 17 February 2018, PISAI will commemorate Father Maurice Borrmans, Missionary of Africa, who passed away on 26 December 2017 in Bry-sur-Marne, France.
At 09h30 in the PISAI Library, there will be testimonies and memories by friends of Father Borrmans, followed by the unveiling and blessing of the dedication plaque of the PISAI Library.
This will be followed at 11h00 by a Eucharistic celebration for the repose of his soul, presided over by the Grand Chancellor of PISAI, Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, in the Church of San Francesco a Ripa.

Father Maurice Borrmans, of the Society of African Missionaries (White Fathers), died at the age of 92. Born in Lille on 22 October 1925, he studied theology in Lille and in Thibar, Tunisia, and was ordained priest on 1 February 1949. After obtaining his PhD in letters from the Paris-Sorbonne University, he lived for twenty years in Algeria and in Tunisia, before moving to Rome in 1964. From then on, Fr. Borrmans taught at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) until 2004, when he began his ‘active retirement’ in Sainte Foy-lès-Lyon, France. Director of the PISAI journal Islamochristiana from 1975 to 2004, he has published countless essays and articles on Islamic-Christian dialogue and its most representative figures, participated in talks and conferences in different parts of the world, working tirelessly and with enthusiasm until the end.