Rev. Joseph A. Fitzmyer S.J.

November 4, 1920 - December 24, 2016

Rev. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., professor of Biblical studies, sacred scripture and Semitic languages, age 96, died December 24, 2016 in Manresa Hall of St. Joseph University Infirmary after a long illness. He was born in Phila., the son of the late Joseph Fitzmyer and Anna (nee Alexy) Fitzmyer, and entered the Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, PA in 1938. He received both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from West Baden College in IN., which was an affiliate of Loyola University Chicago. He went on to earn his Ph.D in Semitic Languages from Johns Hopkins Univ. and his Licentiate of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood on August 15, 1951. As a Jesuit scholastic, Fr. Fitzmyer taught German at Gonzaga High School in Washington, DC. He spent a year in 1957 co-editing the Qumran scrolls at the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. He then taught New Testament and Biblical Greek for nine years at Woodstock College in Maryland. After a brief visiting professorship at Yale Divinity School, he spent two years as a professor of Semitic Languages at the Univ. of Chicago. In 1971 Fr. Fitzmyer became a professor of Theology at Fordham Univ. while also serving for six years as the editor of the Journal of Biblical Literature in Washington, DC. He was a professor of New Testament Studies for two years at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, MA., before serving as a professor of Biblical Studies at Catholic Univ. until 1986 when he left for two years to teach Theology at Boston College. He returned to Catholic Univ. in 1989 as a professor emeritus of Biblical Studies where he remained for the next 22 years. Reverend Clergy, religious, relatives and friends are invited to his viewing on Wednesday, January 4, 2017 from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in Manresa Hall Sunroom,261 City Ave., Merion Station, PA. Wake Service will be at 4:30 p.m. There will also be a viewing on Thursday, January 5, 2017 in St. Matthias Church, 128 Bryn Mawr Avenue, Bala-Cynwyd, PA 19004 from 9 to 10:45 a.m., followed by a Concelebrated Mass at 11 a.m. Interment Jesuit Cemetery, Wernersville, PA 19565 at 1:30 p.m. Condolences may be sent to www.dinanfuneralhome.com. Arr. are by the Dinan Funeral Home, Phila., PA