The following chronological overview is mainly based on W. Smidt’s article in the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica.
Life and ministry
1832: Theophilus Waldmeier [W.] was born in Möhlin, Switzerland.
1856: W. began his study at St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission’s Training Institute.
1858: W. recruited for the mission in Amba Mariam (aka Maqdala).
1859: W. married Yewibdar (the daughter of John Bell and Worknesh Asfa Yilma, a relative of Emperor Tewodros II).
1860 ff: W. founded the craftsman’s colony in Gafat. He also taught at a school there. Among his students were Gebru Desta and the Oromo Hailu Maryam. Waldmeier also prepared religious texts in Amharic and collected Agaw vocabulary.
around 1866: Theophilus Waldmeier, Moritz Hall, and Karl Saalmüller produced cannons for Emperor Tewodros II.
1868: After the Protestant missionaries were forced to leave Ethiopia, W. moved to Beirut. There, he became the inspector of the British Syrian Schools.
1874: W. joined the Society of Friends (aka Quakers). During the following decades, he founded several institutions in Brummana (Libanon).
1915: Waldmeier passed away in Beirut.
Picture
Adapted from a photograph printed in Gräber, Befreite Geiseln, p. 181.
Further reading
» Bibliography with links