Pastor and theologian, Reformed Church
Born: 18 March 1845, La Croix-aux-Mines, Vosges, France
Died: 18 December 1928, Paris, Seine, France
Died: 18 December 1928, Paris, Seine, France
Father: André Emile Weiss (1818-1896)
Mother: Octavie Doersch (1819-1846)
Spouse: Sophie Louise Eugenie Marie Jeanne Edith Warnod 1854-?
Married 20 March 1879 in Paris, Seine, France
Children:
- Edith Rachel 1880-?
- Sophie Agathe 1882-1969
- Gertrude Octavie 1883-1969
- Espérance Rose Angelique 1891-1896
- Ruth Iris 1892-?
- Gaspard Etienne 1901-1989
Biographical information
Nathanaël Weiss was educated by his father in his younger years, and then at a Protestant high school in Strasbourg. He obtained a theology degree at the Protestant Faculty in Strasbourg in 1867 (1).
From 1867 to 1869, Weiss was a tutor in Alsace and Paris. During this time he also won the Schmutz competition in 1868 for a work he wrote on two Reformed theologians of the day (2). In July 1869 Weiss was appointed as an auxiliary pastor to the Reformed consistory of Paris at La Glacière. The parish had many Germans who had been driven out by the Franco-Prussian War, and the church was subsequently closed down because of this.
From 1871 to 1875 Weiss was an agent for the Société des Ecoles du Dimanche (Society of Sunday Schools) in France. He travelled to New York for the General Conference of the Evangelical Alliance in 1873 to present an address on Sunday Schools. On the journey back to France, the ship he was on sank, the survivors were rescued by another boat, which itself sank after sustaining damage in a storm and was rescued by yet another boat which managed to convey him safely to land. Weiss wrote a book about the experience (3).
Weiss became the pastor of the Reformed Church in Boulogne-sur-Seine in November 1875 and the auxiliary pastor of the Reformed consistory in Paris in 1879. In 1887 he established a new Reformed parish in Saint-Cloud, continuing to serve that community until the year of his death.
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(1) Weiss, N. (1867). Du Plessis-Mornay envisagé comme théologien et comme caractère politique.
(2) Weiss, N. (1868). Exposition, comparaison et critique du système ecclésiastique de Schleiermacher et de celui de Vinet.
(3) Weiss, N. (1874). Naufrage de la Ville-du-Havre et du Loch-Earn: souvenirs personnels. Société des Ecoles du Dimanche.
