Conde peter hans kolvenbach biography

Superior General of the Society of Jesus (1928–2016)

Peter Hans Kolvenbach (30 November 1928 – 26 November 2016) was a Dutch Jesuit priest and professor who was the 29th superior general of the Society of Jesus, the largest male Catholic religious order.

Early years

Kolvenbach was born and grew up in Druten, near Nijmegen in the Netherlands.^[1] There he attended Canisius College for his secondary studies, where he concentrated on modern languages. He entered the novitiate at Mariendaal on 7 September 1948. After completing philosophy studies at Berchmans Institute in Nijmegen, he was assigned to Lebanon, where he completed his doctorate in Sacred Theology at Université de Saint-Joseph in Beirut. On 29 June 1961, he was ordained a priest in the Armenian Catholic Church, an Eastern-rite church in communion with Rome.^[2]

The next years of his life were spent in academia, specifically in linguistics. From 1964 to 1976 he taught gener Peter hans kolvenbach sj!