Statue of Monseigneur Sontag

To the right of the entrance of the Saints-Simon-and-Jude Church in Dinsheim-sur-Bruche stands a 2.40-meter-high sandstone statue.

It depicts Monseigneur Jacques Émile Sontag, a major religious figure who was the Latin Archbishop of Isfahan, then in Persia, from 1910 to 1918.

Born in June 1869 in this same Alsatian commune, he devoted his life to his mission before dying a martyr on July 31, 1918, in Urmia, Iran, near the Turkish and Iraqi borders, during a massacre targeting Christians.

The statue, created by sculptor Thomas Vetter, pays tribute to this Lazarist missionary whose dedication and sacrifice remain etched in local memory.