Early Life and Formation
He was born to a once-Calvinist family emigrated from Frankfurt to Amsterdam, where they became Catholic. When Jan Philipp, the youngest of three brothers, was sixteen he graduated from the gymnasium of his native town. From there he passed to the Athenaeum Illustre (high school), and continued his classical studies for four years under Professor David Jacob van Lennep. As an altarboy at de Krijtberg church of Amsterdam the young Roothaan came in touch with ex-Jesuits priests who sent him to Russia when he expressed the desire to become a Jesuit. In 1804 he left his homeland to join the Society of Jesus whose survival in Russia had been recently approved by Pope Pius VII (1801). On the conclusion of his novitiate in Dunaburg, Latvia, he was appointed teacher at the Jesuit gymnasium at Dunaburg from 1806 to 1809. He had already mastered Polish; as a native of Holland, he naturally also spoke French, while the classical Latin, Greek, and Hebrew were also familiar to him. He subsequently studied philosophy and theology at Polotsk, and in 1812 was ordained priest.
Read more about this topic: Jan Roothaan
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