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| | + | '''Saint Peter Canisius''' (May 8, 1521 – December 21, 1597), also known as '''Petrus Canisius''', was an early [[Jesuit]] leader who fought against the spread of [[Protestantism]] in [[Germany]], [[Austria]], [[Bohemia]], and [[Switzerland]]. The restoration of [[Catholicism]] in Germany after the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] is largely attributed to his work. |
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| − | '''Saint Petrus Canisius''' (May 8, 1521 – December 21, 1597) was an important [[Jesuit]] who fought against the spread of [[Protestantism]] in [[Germany]], [[Austria]], [[Bohemia]], and [[Switzerland]]. The restoration of Catholicism in Germany after the Reformation is attributed to his work.
| + | Canisius supervised the founding and maintenance of the early German Jesuit colleges, and his frequent travels won him the title "Second Apostle of Germany." He founded colleges at [[Munich]], [[Innsbruck]], [[Dillingen]], [[Wurzburg]], [[Augsburg]], and [[Vienna]]. Canisius is also noted for his contributions to the important debates at [[Worms]] (1557), the [[Diet of Augsburg]] (1559), and the [[Council of Trent]] (1545-63). He was an important influence on the Holy Roman emperor [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand I]] and several other princes, and his preaching is credited with winning back numerous [[Lutheran]]s to the Catholic side. |
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| − | St. Peter became [[canonization|canonized]] and declared a [[Doctor of the Church]] in 1925. His [[feast day]] in the [[Roman Catholic Church]] is April 27 or December 21.
| + | A prolific writer and publisher, his most important work was his co-called "Triple Catechism," the most famous [[catechism]] of the [[Counter-Reformation]], which was published in more than 400 editions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. |
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| | + | Saint Peter Canisius was [[beatified]] by [[Pope Pius IX]] in 1864, and later [[canonized]] and declared a [[Doctor of the Church]] on May 21, 1925 by [[Pope Pius XI]]. His feast day in the [[Roman Catholic Church]] is currently celebrated on December 21. |
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| − | Through his work in the order he became one of the most influential Catholics of his time. He supervised the founding and maintenance of the early German Jesuit Colleges, often with little resources at hand. Because of his frequent travels between the colleges, a tedious and dangerous occupation at the time, he became known as the Second Apostle of Germany.
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| | ==Biography== | | ==Biography== |
| − | ===Early life=== | + | ===Family and education=== |
| − | Born in [[Nijmegen]] in the [[Guelders|Duchy of Guelders]] (until 1549 part of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], now in the [[Netherlands]]) Peter's father was the wealthy burgomaster, Jacob Canisius. His mother, Ægidia van Houweningen, died shortly after Peter's birth. In 1536 Peter was sent to Cologne, where he studied arts, civil law, and theology at the university there, receiving the degree of Master of Arts in 1540. His acquaintances included staunch Catholics such as Georg of Skodborg, who had been expelled as archbishop of Lund by the Protestants; Johann Gropper, the canon of the Cologne cathedral, and several Carthusian monks. | + | Born in [[Nijmegen]] in the [[Guelders|Duchy of Guelders]] (until 1549 part of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], now in the [[Netherlands]]), Peter's father was the wealthy burgomaster, Jacob Canisius. His mother, Ægidia van Houweningen, died shortly after Peter's birth. In 1536 Peter was sent to [[Cologne]], where he studied arts, [[civil law]], and [[theology]] at the university there, receiving the degree of Master of Arts in 1540. His acquaintances included staunch Catholics such as [[Georg of Skodborg,]] who had been expelled as archbishop of Lund by the Protestants; [[Johann Gropper]], the canon of the Cologne cathedral; and several [[Carthusian order|Carthusian monks]]. |
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| − | Although his father desired him to marry a wealthy young woman Peter pledged himself to [[celibacy]]. In 1543 he visited the Jesuit leader [[Peter Faber]], devoting himself to the Jesuit "Spiritual Exercises" under Faber's direction. Canisius was admitted into the [[Society of Jesus]] at Mainz, on May 8, 1543, the first Dutchman to join the Jesuit order. | + | Although his father desired him to marry a wealthy young woman, Peter pledged himself to [[celibacy]]. In 1543 he visited the Jesuit leader [[Peter Faber]], devoting himself to the Jesuit "[[Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola|Spiritual Exercises]]" under Faber's direction. Canisius was admitted into the [[Society of Jesus]], which was then only three years old, at [[Mainz]], on May 8, 1543, the first Dutchman to join the Jesuit order. |
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| − | ===Preaching and teaching=== | + | ===Early career=== |
| − | With the help of Leonhard Kessel and others, Canisius founded Jesuit house in Germany at Cologne. He also preached in the city and its suburbs, and debated and taught in the university. In 1546 he was admitted to the priesthood. Soon after this, he was sent to obtain assistance from [[Emperor Charles V]] against the the Protestant leader [[Hermann von Wied]], the former archbishop who had attempted to convert the diocese to the Protestant cause. In 1547, he participated in the [[Council of Trent]], where is recorded as having spoken twice to an assembly of theologians. After this he spent several months under the direction of Jesuit leader [[Ignatius Loyola]] in Rome. In 1548 he taught rhetoric at Messina, Sicily, preaching. At this time Duke William IV of Bavaria requested [[Pope Paul III]] to send him some professors from the Society of Jesus for the University of Ingolstadt, and Canisius was among those selected, reaching the city in 1549 after spending time in Rome with Ignatius Loyola and receiving a doctorate in theology at Bologna. In 1550 he was elected rector of the university, and in 1552he was sent by Ignatius to the new college in Vienna. There, he taught theology in the university and preached at the court of Ferdinand I, and was confessor at the hospital and prison. In 1553, he visited many parishes in Austria which had previously been abandoned by the Catholics. Canisius also exerted a strong influence on [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Ferdinand I]] by warning him that providing more rights to Protestants would endanger his soul.
| + | [[Image:Ferdinand I (1503-1564).jpg|thumb|200px|Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I]] |
| | + | Canisius helped to found the first [[Jesuit]] house in [[Germany]] at [[Cologne]]. He also preached in the city and its suburbs, and debated and taught in the university. In 1546 he was admitted to the Catholic priesthood. Soon after this, he was sent to obtain assistance from [[Emperor Charles V]] against the Protestant leader [[Hermann of Wied]], the [[elector]] and former Catholic [[archbishop]] who had attempted to convert his county to the Protestant cause. In 1547, he participated in the [[Council of Trent]], where he is recorded as having spoken twice to an assembly of theologians. After this he spent several months under the direction of Jesuit founder [[Ignatius Loyola]] in [[Rome]]. |
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| − | When Ferdinand's son and heir the future [[Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian II]] was about to declare himself Protestant, Canisus convinced Ferdinand to threaten to disinherit Maximilian should he do so. Maximilian had appointed a married priest named Phauser to the office of court preacher, who preached the Lutheran doctrine. Canisius opposed Phauser in public disputations and warned Ferdinand I, verbally and in writing about his son's pro-Protestant attitude. Maximilian was obliged to dismiss Phauser.
| + | In 1548 Canisius taught rhetoric at [[Messina]], [[Sicily]]. At this time [[Duke William IV]] of [[Bavaria]] requested [[Pope Paul III]] to send him some professors from the [[Society of Jesus]] for the [[University of Ingolstadt]], and Canisius was among those selected, reaching the city in 1549 after receiving a doctorate in [[theology]] at [[Bologna]]. In 1550 he was elected [[rector]] of the University of Ingolstadt. |
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| − | Ferdinand offered Canisus the position of Bishop of Vienna on three occasions, but he refused. In 1555 he was present at the Diet of Augsburg with Ferdinand, at which the [[Peace of Augsburg]] was concluded and it as was agreed that each sovereign prince could decided the religion of his subjects.
| + | In 1552 he was sent by Ignatius Loyola to [[Vienna]], where he taught theology in the university, preached at the court of [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Ferdinand I]], and was confessor at the local hospital and prison. Canisius exerted a strong influence on Ferdinand I by warning him that providing more rights to Protestants would endanger his soul. He also visited and ministered to many [[Austria]] parishes which had previously been abandoned by the Catholics in the wake of [[Protestantism]]'s advance. |
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| − | Later in 1555, Canisus succeeded in winning approval to open Jesuit colleges at Ingolstadt and Prague, and Ignatius appointed him first provincial superior of Upper Germany. | + | When it seemed that Ferdinand's son and heir, the future [[Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian II]], was about to declare himself Protestant, Canisius convinced Ferdinand to threaten to disinherit Maximilian should he do so. Ferdinand offered Canisius the position of bishop of Vienna on three occasions, but he refused. In 1555 he was present with Ferdinand at the [[Diet of Augsburg]], which officially ended the religious struggle between Catholics and Protestants within the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and allowed the German princes to select either [[Lutheranism]] or [[Catholicism]] within the domains they controlled. In the same year, Pope [[Julius III]] himself appointed Canisius as administrator of the bishopric of Vienna for one year, but Peter succeeded in keeping the appointment temporary. Later in 1555, Canisius succeeded in winning approval to open Jesuit colleges at Ingolstadt and [[Prague]], and Ignatius appointed him first [[Jesuit]] provincial superior of Upper Germany. |
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| − | By the appointment of the Catholic princes and the order of the pope he took part in the [[Colloquy of Worms]] in 1557, where he acted as the champion of the Catholics in opposition to the Lutheran leader [[Philip Melanchthon]]. Canisius is generally credited with sowing seeds of discord among the Protestants regarding their doctrine of original sin and justification, forcing the meeting to be dissolved. | + | ===Champion for the Counter-Reformation=== |
| | + | By the appointment of the Catholic princes and the order of the [[pope]], Canisius took part in the [[Colloquy of Worms]] in 1557, where he acted as the champion of the Catholics in opposition to the Lutheran leader [[Philipp Melanchthon]]. There, Canisius is credited with sowing the seeds of discord among the Protestants regarding their doctrines of [[original sin]] and [[justification]], forcing the meeting to be dissolved with the Protestants in disarray. |
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| − | In the same year, Pope Julius III himself appointed him as administrator of the bishopric of Vienna for one year, but Canisius succeeded keeping the appointment temporary.
| + | [[Image:Pius iv.jpg|thumb|150px|Pope [[Pius IV]] sent Peter Canisius as his agent in secretly carrying the decrees of the [[Council of Trent]] to Catholic leaders in Germany.]] |
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| − | Canisius was an influential teacher and preacher, especially through his "German catechism," a book that defined the basic principles of Catholicism in the German language and found many readers in German-speaking countries. He preached hundreds of sermons in many European cities. His preaching was said to have been so convincing that it attracted hundreds of Protestants back to the Catholic faith. | + | As a writer, Canisius became especially influential through his "German catechism," a book that defined the basic principles of Catholicism in the German language and found many readers in German-speaking countries. Written from 1555–58, Canisius' catechism was a lucid expression of Catholic doctrines written in the context of widespread [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] criticism of the Roman tradition. It would become the most widely read catechism of the [[Counter-Reformation]] and went through more than 400 editions by the end of the seventeenth century. He was also a gifted speaker, and his widespread preaching was reportedly so convincing that it attracted hundreds of Protestants back to the Catholic faith. |
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| − | In 1559 he opened a college in Munich. In 1562 he appeared again at the ongoing Council Trent, this time as a papal theologian. In the spring of 1563, when the emperor had become estranged from the pope and the [[Roman curia]] Canisius strove to reconcile them, enabling the Council of Trent to end peacefully. When Rome praised him for his efforts, however, Ferdinand now began to consider his loyalty suspect. | + | In 1559 Canisius opened a college in [[Munich]]. In 1562 he appeared again at the ongoing [[Council of Trent]], this time as a papal theologian. In the spring of 1563, when the emperor had become estranged from the pope and the [[Roman curia]] Canisius strove to reconcile them, enabling the Council of Trent to end peacefully. While Rome praised him for his efforts, however, Ferdinand now began to consider his loyalty suspect. |
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| − | In 1565, [[Pius IV]] sent him as his nuncio to deliver the decrees of the Council of Trent to Germany. Canisius negotiated with the Electors of Mainz and Trier, as well several important other political leaders and bishops. After Pius IV's death, Canisus requested to be relieved of this assignment by [[Pius V]] saying that his activities had aroused suspicions of espionage and interference in politics. | + | In 1565, [[Pius IV]] sent Canisius, now 43 years of age, to deliver the bulky decrees of the [[Council of Trent]] to the bishops in Germany, a dangerous journey through Protestant lands. During this trip, Canisius negotiated with the electors of Mainz and Trier, as well as several important other political leaders and bishops. After Pius IV's death, Canisius requested to be relieved of this assignment by [[Pius V]] on the grounds that his activities had aroused suspicions of [[espionage]] and interference in politics. |
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| − | By the time he left Germany in 1580, the Jesuit order in there had evolved from almost nothing into a powerful tool of the [[Counter Reformation]]. Canisius spent the last 17 years of his life in [[Fribourg]], [[Switzerland]], where he founded the Jesuit College that became the core of today's [[University of Fribourg]].
| + | At the [[Diet of Augsburg]] in 1566, Canisius reportedly helped convince Cardinal [[Giovanni Francesco Commendone]] not to condemn the fragile peace with the Protestants, who had become emboldened under [[Emperor Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian II]]. This is thought to have helped avert a new religious war and to enable the renewal of the Catholic Church in parts of Germany. In the same year, Canisius is credited with bringing the Lutheran count of Helfenstein to the Catholic Church. |
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| + | Around this time, Canisius was also involved in the deaths of at least two "[[witch]]es." In 1563, he had written of his concern that [[witchcraft]] was increasing "remarkably" in Germany: "Their outrages are horrifying... They bring many to their deaths through their devilish arts, raise storms, and bring frightful harms..."<ref> David Lederer, [http://books.google.com/books?id=XWJuvn3rDk8C&pg=RA1-PA108&lpg=RA1-PA108&dq=Canisius++witches&source=web&ots=ZUH5A1o36O&sig=aS0i25ufJymo5FhJOkpthvcm1Bg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result Madness, Religion and the State in Early Modern Europe] ''www.google.com''. Retrieved August 4, 2008.</ref> Over the next year he continued teaching, preaching, and establishing new Jesuit educational institutions. |
| − | Born at Nimwegen in the Netherlands, 8 May, 1521; died in Fribourg, 21 November, 1597.
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| | + | ===Later career=== |
| | + | [[Image:Ferdinand II Tirol MATEO.jpg|thumb|150px|Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria]] |
| | + | In 1569 Canisius returned to [[Augsburg]] and preached Lenten sermons in the Church of Saint Mauritius. In 1570, he moved to [[Innsbruck]] to serve as the court preacher to [[Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria|Archduke Ferdinand II]]. In 1575 Pope [[Gregory XIII]] sent him with papal messages to the archduke and to the [[Duke of Bavaria]]. He attended the Diet of Ratisbon in 1576 as theologian to the papal legate Cardinal Giovanni Morone. By the time he left Greater Germany in 1580, the Jesuit order there had evolved from almost nothing into a powerful tool of the [[Counter Reformation]]. |
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| | + | Canisius spent the last 17 years of his life in [[Fribourg]], [[Switzerland]], where he founded the Jesuit college that became the core of today's [[University of Fribourg]]. |
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| | + | The city authorities ordered his body to be buried before the high altar of Fribourg's principal church, the Church of Saint Nicolaus, from which it was moved in 1625 to the Church of [[Saint Michael]], the church of the Jesuit college at today's University of Fribourg. |
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| − | During Lent of 1568 Canisius preached at Ellwangen, in Würtemberg; from there he went with Cardinal Truchsess to Rome. The Upper German province of the order had elected the provincial as its representative at the meeting of the procurators; this election was illegal, but Canisius was admitted. For months he collected in the libraries of Rome material for a great work which he was preparing. In 1569 he returned to Augsburg and preached Lenten sermons in the Church of St. Mauritius. Having been a provincial for thirteen years (an unusually long time) he was relieved of the office at his own request, and went to Dillingen, where he wrote, catechized, and heard confessions, his respite, however, was short; in 1570 he was obliged again to go to Augsburg. A year latter he was compelled to move to Innsbruck and to accept the office of court preacher to Archduke Ferdinand II. In 1575 Gregory XIII sent him with papal messages to the archduke and to the Duke of Bavaria. When he arrived in Rome to make his report, the Third General Congregation of the order was assembled and, by special favour, Canisius was invited to be present. From this time he was preacher in the parish church of Innsbruck until the Diet of Ratisbon (1576), which he attended as theologian of the cardinal legate Morone. In the following year he supervised at Ingolstadt the printing of an important work, and induced the students of the university to found a sodality of the Blessed Virgin. During Lent, 1578, he preached at the court of Duke William of Bavaria at Landshut. The nuncio Bonhomini desired to have a college of the society at Fribourg; the order at first refused on account of the lack of men, but the pope intervened and, at the end of 1580, Canisius laid the foundation stone. In 1581 he founded a sodality of the Blessed Virgin among the citizens and, soon afterwards, sodalities for women and students; in 1582 schools were opened, and he preached in the parish church and in other places until 1589.
| + | ==Legacy== |
| − | | + | Peter Canisius was an important force in influencing the [[Catholic Church]] and the [[Jesuit]] order to invest substantial efforts to defend the Catholic faith in northern Europe, where he himself was the [[Counter-Reformation]]'s most effective advocate in the mid-1500s. It is not an exaggeration to say that the existence of Catholicism in Germany and Austria today depends to a large extent on his work. He also convinced [[Pius V]] to send yearly subsidies to the Catholic printers of Germany, and he induced the city council of Fribourg to erect and support a printing establishment. He himself was a prolific writer and publisher, with hundreds of works to his credit. |
| − | The canton had not been left uninfluenced by the Protestant movement. Canisius worked indefatigably with the provost Peter Schnewly, the Franciscan Johannes Michel, and others, for the revival of religious sentiments amongst the people; since then Fribourg has remained a stronghold of the Catholic Church. In 1584, while on the way to take part in another meeting of the order at Augsburg, he preached at Lucerne and made a pilgrimage to the miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin at Einsiedeln. According to his own account, it was then that St. Nicholas, the patron saint of Fribourg, made known to him his desire that Canisius should not leave Fribourg again. Many times the superiors of the order planned to transfer him to another house, but the nuncio, the city council, and the citizens themselves opposed the measure; they would not consent to lose this celebrated and saintly man. The last years of his life he devoted to the instruction of converts, to making spiritual addresses to the brothers of the order, to writing and re-editing books. The city authorities ordered his body to be buried before the high altar of the principal church, the Church of St. Nicolaus, from which they were translated in 1625 to that of St. Michael, the church of the Jesuit College.
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| − | Canisius held that to defend the Catholic truths with the pen was just as important as to convert the Hindus. At Rome and Trent he strongly urged the appointment at the council, at the papal court, and in other parts of Italy, of able theologians to write in defence of the Catholic faith. He begged Pius V to send yearly subsidies to the Catholic printers of Germany, and to permit German scholars to edit Roman manuscripts; he induced the city council of Fribourg to erect a printing establishment, and he secured special privileges for printers. He also kept in touch with the chief Catholic printers of his time—Plantin of Antwerp, Cholin of Cologne, and Mayer of Dillingen—and had foreign works of importance reprinted in Germany, for example, the works of Andrada, Fontidonio, and Villalpando in defence of the Council of Trent.
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| − | Canisius advised the generals of the order to create a college of authors; urged scholars like Bartholomæus Latomus, Friedrich Staphylus, and Hieronymus Torensis to publish their works; assisted Onofrio Panvinio and the polemic Stanislaus Hosius, reading their manuscripts and correcting proofs; and contributed to the work of his friend Surius on the councils. At his solicitation the "Briefe aus Indien," the first relations of Catholic missioners, were published (Dillingen, 1563-71); "Canisius," wrote the Protestant preacher, Witz, "by this activity gave an impulse which deserves our undivided recognition, indeed which arouses our admiration" ("Petrus Canisius," Vienna, 1897, p. 12).
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| − | The latest bibliography of the Society of Jesus devotes thirty-eight quarto pages to a list of the works published by Canisius and their different editions, and it must be added that this list is incomplete. The most important of his works are described below; the asterisk signifies that the work bears the name of Canisius neither on the title page nor in the preface. His chief work is his triple "Catechism." In 1551 King Ferdinand I asked the University of Vienna to write a compendium of Christian doctrine, and Canisius wrote (Vienna, 1555), at first for advanced students, his "Summa doctrinæ christianæ . . . in usum Christianæ pueritiæ," two hundred and eleven questions in five chapters (the first edition appeared without the name of the author, but later all three catechisms bore his name); then a short extract for school children, "Summa . . . ad captum rudiorum accommodata" (Ingolstadt, 1556), was published as an appendix to the "Principia Grammatices"; his catechism for students of the lower and middle grades, "Parvus Catechismus Catholicorum" (later known as "Institutiones christianæ pietatis" or "Catechismus catholicus"), is an extract from the larger catechism, written in the winter of 1557-58. Of the first Latin edition (Cologne, 1558), no copy is known to exist; the German edition appeared at Dillingen, 1560. The "Summa" only received its definite form in the Cologne edition of 1556; it contains two hundred and twenty-two questions, and two thousand quotations from the Scriptures, and about twelve hundred quotations from the Fathers of the Church are inscribed on the margins; later all these quotations were compiled in the original by Peter Busæus, S.J., and appeared in four quarto volumes under the title "Authoritates Sacræ Scripturæ et Sanctorum patrum" etc. (Cologne, 1569-70); in 1557 Johannes Hasius, S.J., published the same work in one large folio volume, entitled "Opus catechisticum," for which Canisius wrote an introduction. The catechism of Canisius is remarkable for its ecclesiastically correct teachings, its clear, positive sentences, its mild and dignified form. It is today recognized as a masterpiece even by non-Catholics, e.g., the historians Ranke, Menzel, Philippson, and the theologians Kawerau, Rouffet, Zerschwitz.
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| − | Pius V entrusted Canisius with the confutation of the Centuriators of Magdeburg. Canisius undertook to prove the dishonesty of the centuriators by exposing their treatment of the principal persons in the Gospel—John the Baptist, the Mother of God, the Apostle St. Peter—and published (Dillingen, 1571) his next most important work, "Commentariorum de Verbi Dei corruptelis liber primus: in quo de Sanctissimi Præcursoris Domini Joannis Baptistæ Historia Evangelica . . . pertractatur." Here the confutation of the principal errors of Protestantism is exegetical and historical rather than scholastical; in 1577 "De Maria Virgine incomparabili, et Dei Genitrice sacrosancta, libri quinque" was published at Ingolstadt. Later he united these two works into one book of two volumes, "Commentariorum de Verbi corruptelis" (Ingolstadt, 1583, and later Paris and Lyons); the treatise on St. Peter and his primacy was only begun; the work on the Virgin Mary contains some quotations from the Fathers of the Church that had not been printed previously, and treats of the worship of Mary by the Church. A celebrated theologian of the present day called this work a classic defence of the whole Catholic doctrine about the Blessed Virgin (Scheeben, "Dogmatik," III, 478); in 1543 he published (under the name of Petrus Nouiomagus) "Des erleuchten D. Johannis Tauleri, von eym waren Euangelischen leben, Göttliche Predig. Leren" etc., in which several writings of the Dominican mystic appear in print for the first time. This was the first book published by a Jesuit. "Divi Cyrilli archiepiscopi Alexandrini Opera" (Latin translation, 2 fol. vols., Cologne, 1546); "D. Leonis Papæ huius nominis primi . . . Opera" (Cologne, 1546, later reprinted at Venice, Louvain, and Cologne), Leo is brought forward as a witness for the Catholic teachings and the discipline of the Church against the innovators; "De consolandis ægrotis" (Vienna, 1554), exhortations (Latin, German, and Italian) and prayers, with a preface by Canisius; "Lectiones et Precationes Ecclesiasticæ" (Ingolstadt, 1556), a prayerbook for students, reprinted more than thirty times under the titles of "Epistolæ et Evangelia" etc.; *"Principia grammatices" (Ingolstadt, 1556); Hannibal Codrett's Latin Grammar, adapted for German students by Canisius, reprinted in 1561, 1564 and 1568; *"Ordnung der Letaney von vnser lieben Frawen" [Dillingen (1558)], the first known printing of the Litany of Loreto, the second (Macerata, 1576) was most probably arranged by Canisius; *"Vom abschiedt des Coloquij zu Wormbs" (s. l. a., 1558?).
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| − | *"Ain Christlicher Bericht, was die hailige Christliche Kirch . . . sey" (Dillingen, 1559), translation and preface by Canisius (cf. N. Paulus in "Historischpolit. Blätter," CXXI, 765); "Epistolæ B. Hieronymi . . . selectæ" (Dillingen, 1562), a school edition arranged and prefaced by, Canisius and later reprinted about forty times; "Hortulus Animæ," a German prayer-book arranged by Canisius (Dillingen, 1563), reprinted later, probably published also in Latin by him. The "Hortuli" were placed later on the Index nisi corrigantur; *"Von der Gesellschaft Jesu Durch. Joannem Albertum Wimpinensem" (Ingolstadt, 1563), a defence of the order against Chemnitz and Zanger, the greater part of which was written by Canisius; "Institutiones, et Exercitamentas Christianæ Pietatis" (Antwerp, 1566), many times reprinted, in which Canisius combined the catechism for the middle grades and the "Lectiones et Precationes ecclesiasticæ" (revised in Rome); "Beicht und Communionbüchlein" [Dillingen, 1567 (?), 1575, 1579, 1582, 1603; Ingolstadt, 1594, etc.]; "Christenliche . . . Predig von den vier Sontagen im Aduent, auch vonn dem heiligen Christag" (Dillingen, 1570).
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| − | At the request of Ferdinand II of Tyrol, Canisius supervised the publishing of *"Von dem hoch vnd weitberhümpten Wunderzeichen, so sich . . . auff dem Seefeld . . . zugetragen" (Dillingen, 1580), and wrote a long preface for it; then appeared "Zwey vnd neuntzig Betrachtung vnd Gebett, dess . . . Bruders Clausen von Vnterwalden" (Fribourg, 1586); "Manuale Catholicorum. In usum pie precandi" (Fribourg, 1587); "Zwo . . . Historien . . . Die erste von . . . S. Beato, ersten Prediger in Schweitzerland. Die andere von . . . S. Fridolino, ersten Prediger zu Glaris vnd Seckingen" (Fribourg, 1590): in this, the first of the popular biographies of the saints especially worshipped in Switzerland, Canisius does not give a scholarly essay, but endeavours to strengthen the Catholic Swiss in their faith and arouse their piety; "Notæ in Evangelicas lectiones, quæ per totum annum Dominicis diebus . . . recitantur (Fribourg, 1591), a large quarto volume valuable for sermons and meditations for the clergy; "Miserere, das ist: Der 50. Psalm Davids . . . Gebettsweiss . . . aussgelegt" (Munich, 1594, Ingolstadt, 1594); "Warhafte Histori . . . Von Sanct Moritzen . . . vnd seiner Thebaischen Legion . . . Auch insonderheit von Sanct Vrso" (Fribourg, 1594); *"CatholischeKirchengesäng zum theil vor vnd nach dem Catechismo zum teil sonst durchs Jahr . . . zusingen" (Fribourg, 1596); "Enchiridion Pietatis quo ad precandum Deum instruitur Princeps" (s. l., 1751), dedicated by Canisius in 1592 to the future emperor Ferdinand II (Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie; XIV, 741); "Beati Petri Canisii Exhortationes domesticæ," mostly short sketches, collected and edited by G. Schlosser, S.J. (Roermond, 1876); "Beati Petri Canisii Epistulæ et Acta": 1541-65, edited by O. Braunsberger, S.J. (4 vols., Freiburg im Br., 1896-1905). There still remain unpublished four or five volumes containing eleven hundred and ninety-five letters and regesta written to or by Canisius, and six hundred and twenty-five documents dealing with his labours.
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| − | "Peter Canisius," says the Protestant professor of theology, Krüger, "was a noble Jesuit; no blemish stains his character" ("Petrus Canisius" in "Geschichte u. Legende," Giessen, 1898, 10). The principal trait of his character was love for Christ and for his work; he devoted his life to defend, propagate, and strengthen the Church. Hence his devotion to the pope. He did not deny the abuses which existed in Rome; he demanded speedy remedies; but the supreme and full power of the pope over the whole Church, and the infallibility of his teaching as Head of the Church, Canisius championed as vigorously as the Italian and Spanish brothers of the order. He cannot be called an "Episcopalian" or "Semi-Gallican"; his motto was "whoever adheres to the Chair of St. Peter is my man. With Ambrose I desire to follow the Church of Rome in every respect." PIus V wished to make him cardinal. The bishops, Brendel of Mains, Brus of Prague, Pflug of Naumburg, Blarer of Basle, Cromer of Ermland, and Spaur of Brixen, held him in great esteem. St. Francis of Sales sought his advice by letter. He enjoyed the friendship of the most distinguished members of the College of Cardinals—Borromeo, Hosius, Truchsess, Commendone, Morone, Sirlet; of the nuncios Delfino, Portia, Bonhomini and others; of many leading exponents of ecclesiastical learning; and of such prominent men as the Chancellor of the University of Louvain, Ruard Tapper, the provost Martin Eisengrein, Friedrich Staphylus, Franz Sonnius, Martin Rithovius, Wilhelm Lindanus, the imperial vice-chancellors Jacob Jonas and Georg Sigismund Seld, the Bavarian chancellor Simon Thaddaeus Eck, and the Fuggers and Welsers of Augsburg. "Canisius's whole life," writes the Swiss Protestant theologian Gautier, "is animated by the desire to form a generation of devout clerics capable of serving the Church worthily" ("Etude sur la correspondance de Pierre Canisius," Geneva, 1905, p. 46). At Ingolstadt he held disputations and homiletic exercises among the young clerics, and endeavoured to raise the religious and scientific standard of the Georgianum. He collected for and sent pupils to the German College at Rome and provided for pupils who had returned home. He also urged Gregory XIII to make donations and to found similar institutious in Germany; soon papal seminaries were built at Prague, Fulda, Braunsberg, and Dillingen. At Ingolstadt, Innsbruck, Munich, and Vienna schools were built under the guidance of Canisius for the nobility and the poor, the former to educate the clergy of the cathedrals, the latter for the clergy of the lower grades. The reformed ordinances published at that time for the Universities of Cologne, Ingolstadt, and Vienna must be credited in the main to his suggestions.
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| − | With apostolic zeal he loved the Society of Jesus; the day of his admission to the order he called his second birthday. Obedience to his superiors was his first rule. As a superior he cared with parental love for the necessities of his subordinates. Shortly before his death he declared that he had never regretted becoming a Jesuit, and recalled the abuses which the opponents of the Church had heaped upon his order and his person. Johann Wigand wrote a vile pamphlet against his "Catechism"; Flacius Illyricus, Johann Gnypheus, and Paul Scheidlich wrote books against it; Melanchthon declared that he defended errors wilfully; Chemnitz called him a cynic; the satirist Fischart scoffed at him; Andreæ Dathen, Gallus, Hesshusen, Osiander, Platzius, Roding, Vergerio, and others wrote vigorous attacks against him; at Prague the Hussites threw stones into the church where he was saying Mass; at Berne he was derided by a Protestant mob. At Easter, 1568, he was obliged to preach in the Cathedral of Würzburg in order to disprove the rumour that he had become a Protestant. Unembittered by all this, he said, "the more our opponents calumniate us, the more we must love them." He requested Catholic authors to advocate the truth with modesty and dignity without scoffing or ridicule. The names of Luther and Melanchthon were never mentioned in his "Catechism." His love for the German people is characteristic; he urged the brothers of the order to practise German diligently, and he liked to hear the German national hymns sung. At his desire St. Ignatius decreed that all the members of the order should offer monthly Masses and prayers for the welfare of Germany and the North. Ever the faithful advocate of the Germans at the Holy See, he obtained clemency for them in questions of ecclesiastical censures, and permission to give extraordinary absolutions and to dispense from the law of fasting. He also wished the Index to be modified that German confessors might be authorized to permit the reading of some books, but in his sermons he warned the faithful to abstain from reading such books without permission. While he was rector of the University of Ingolstadt, a resolution was passed forbidding the use of Protestant textbooks and, at his request, the Duke of Bavaria forbade the importation of books opposed to religion and morals. At Cologne he requested the town council to forbid the printing or sale of books hostile to the Faith or immoral, and in the Tyrol had Archduke Ferdinand II suppress such books. He also advised Bishop Urban of Gurk, the court preacher of Ferdinand I, not to read so many Protestant books, but to study instead the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers. At Nimwegen he searched the libraries of his friends, and burned all heretical books. In the midst of all these cares Canisius remained essentially a man of prayer; he was an ardent advocate of the Rosary and its sodalities. He was also one of the precursors of the modern devotion of the Sacred Heart.
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| − | During his lifetime his "Catechism" appeared in more than 200 editions in at least twelve languages. It was one of the works which influenced St. Aloysius Gonzaga to enter the Society of Jesus; it converted, among others, Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm of Neuburg; and as late as the eighteenth century in many places the words "Canisi" and catechism were synonymous. It remained the foundation and pattern for the catechisms printed later. His preaching also had great influence; in 1560 the clergy of the cathedral of Augsburg testified that by his sermons nine hundred persons had been brought back to the Church, and in May, 1562, it was reported the Easter communicants numbered one thousand more than in former years. Canisius induced some of the prominent Fuggers to return to the Church, and converted the leader of the Augsburg Anabaptists. In 1537 the Catholic clergy had been banished from Augsburg by the city council; but after the preaching of Canisius public processions were held, monasteries gained novices, people crowded to the jubilee indulgence, pilgrimages were revived, and frequent Communion again became the rule. After the elections of 1562 there were eighteen Protestants and twenty-seven Catholics on the city council. He received the approbation of Pius IV by a special Brief in 1561. Great services were rendered by Canisius to the Church through the extension of the Society of Jesus; the difficulties were great: lack of novices, insufficient education of some of the younger members, poverty, plague, animosity of the Protestants, jealousy on the part of fellow-Catholics, the interference of princes and city councils. Notwithstanding all this, Canisius introduced the order into Bavaria, Bohemia, Swabia, the Tyrol, and Hungary, and prepared the way in Alsace, the Palatinate, Hesse, and Poland. Even opponents admit that to the Jesuits principally is due the credit of saving a large part of Germany from religious innovation. In this work Canisius was the leader. In many respects Canisius was the product of an age which believed in strange miracles, put witches to death, and had recourse to force against the adherents of another faiih; but notwithstanding all this, Johannes Janssen does not hesitate to declare that Canisius was the most prominent and most influential Catholic reformer of the sixteenth century (Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, 15th and 16th editions, IV, p. 406). "Canisius more than any other man," writes A. Chroust, "saved for the Church of Rome the Catholic Germany of today" (Deutsche Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, new series, II, 106). It has often been declared that Canisius in many ways resembles St. Boniface, and he is therefore called the second Apostle of Germany. The Protestant professor of theology, Paul Drews, says: "It must be admitted that, from the standpoint of Rome, he deserves the title of Apostle of Germany" ("Petrus Canisius," Halle, 1892, p. 103).
| + | While he was harshly criticized by his contemporary Protestant opponents as a cynic who knowingly defended Catholic errors, he won the respect of later Protestants who recognized his sincerity of faith and praised his moral character. |
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| − | Soon after his death reports spread of the miraculous help obtained by invoking his name. His tomb was visited by pilgrims. The Society of Jesus decided to urge his beatification. The ecclesiastical investigations of his virtues and miracles were at first conducted by the Bishops of Fribourg, Dillingen, and Freising (1625-90); the apostolic proceedings began in 1734, but were interrupted by political and religions disorders. Gregory XVI resumed them about 1833; Pius IX on 17 April, 1864, approved of four of the miracles submitted, and on 20 November, 1869, the solemn beatification took place in St. Peter's at Rome. In connection with this, there appeared between 1864-66 more than thirty different biographies. On the occasion of the tercentenarv of his death, Leo XIII issued to the bishops of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland his much-discussed "Epistola Encyclica de memoria sæculari B. Petri Canisii"; the bishops of Switzerland issued a collective pastoral; in numerous places of Europe and in some places in the United States this tercentenary was celebrated and about fifty pamphlets were published. In order to encourage the veneration of Canisius there is published at Fribourg, Switzerland, monthly since 1896, the "Canisius-Stimmen" (in German and French). The infirmary of the College of St. Michael, in which Canisius died, is now a chapel. Vestments and other objects which he used are kept in different houses of the order. The Canisius College at Buffalo possesses precious relics. In the house of Canisius in the Broersstraat at Nimwegen the room is still shown where he was born. Other memorials are: the Canisius statue in one of the public squares of Fribourg, the statue in the cathedral of Augsburg, the Church of the Holy Saviour and the Mother of Sorrows, recently built in his memory in Vienna, and the new Canisius College at Nimwegen. At the twenty-sixth general meeting of German Catholics held at Aachen, 1879, a Canisius society for the religious education of the young was founded. The general prayer, said every Sunday in the churches originated by Canisius, is still in use in the greater part of Germany, and also in many places in Austria and Switzerland. Various portraits of Canisius exist: in the Churches of St. Nicolaus and St. Michael in Fribourg; in the vestry of the Augsburg Cathedral; in the Church of St. Michael at Munich; in the town hall at Nimwegen; in the town hall at Ingolstadt; in the Cistercian monastery at Stams. The woodcut in Pantaleo, "Prosopographia," III (Basle, 1566), is worthless. Copper-plates were produced by Wierx (1619), Custos (1612), Sadeler (1628), Hainzelmann (1693), etc. In the nineteenth century are: Fracassini's painting in the Vatican; Jeckel's steel engraving; Leo Samberger's painting; Steinle's engraving (1886). In most of these pictures Canisius is represented with his catechism and other books, or surrounded by children whom he is instructing. | + | Soon after his death, reports spread of the miraculous help obtained by invoking his name, and his tomb was visited by many Catholic [[pilgrims]]. [[Beatified]] in 1864, Saint Peter Canisius was [[canonization|canonized]] and declared a [[Doctor of the Church]] in 1925. Until 1969, his [[feast day]] was celebrated on April 27, but is now officially commemorated on December 21. In art, Saint Peter Canisius is often represented with his [[catechism]] and other books, or surrounded by children whom he is instructing. |
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| − | ==Legacy==
| + | In recognition of his early work in the establishment of Jesuit education, numerous educational and other institutions have been named for Canisius. |
| − | In recognition of his early work in the establishment of Jesuit education, there are mulitple educational institutions named for Canisius. Among them is Canisius College, a Jesuit secondary school in his hometown of Nijmegen and the [[alma mater]] of [[Peter Hans Kolvenbach]], the current [[Superior General]] of the [[Jesuit]] order. Another [[Canisius College]], a post-secondary school, and [[Canisius High School]], a secondary school, are located in [[Buffalo, New York]]. Furthermore, a jesuit-run [[Canisius Kolleg]] can be found in Berlin, Germany. There is also a secondary or post-secondary complex of schools named for Canisius, [[Kolese Kanisius]] (''Collegium Canisianum'' or ''Canisius College''), on [[Jakarta]], [[Indonesia]]. In 1850 they also founded the Canisius Hospital on the corner of the Houtmarkt and the Pauwelstraat in Nijmegen. In 1974 it has merged in to the Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital located at the Weg door Jonkerbos in Nijmegen. The 'Apologetische Vereniging St. Petrus Canisius' (apologetic association Petrus Canisius) was founded in the [[Netherlands]] in 1904. The purpose of this association was the defense of the [[Roman Catholic Church]] against new values of [[socialism]] and [[liberalism]] and the restoration of the society with a more Catholic way of life. | |
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| − | ==Works== | + | ==See also== |
| − | * (1555) ''Summa doctrinae christianae'' | + | *[[Society of Jesus]] |
| − | * (1556) ''Catechismus minimus'' | + | *[[Counter-Reformation]] |
| − | * (1558) ''Parvus catechismus catholicorum''
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| | ==Notes== | | ==Notes== |
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| | ==References== | | ==References== |
| − | * Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine). ''The Lives of the Saints''. With introduction and additional Lives of English martyrs, Cornish, Scottish, and Welsh saints, and a full index to the entire work. Edinburgh: J. Grant, 1914.
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| − | * Butler, Alban. ''Lives of the Saints''. Edited, revised, and supplemented by Herbert Thurston and Donald Attwater. Palm Publishers, 1956.
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| − | * Braunsberger, Otto. "Blessed Peter Canisius" in [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11756c.htm The Catholic Encyclopedia]. 1911.
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| − | * Farmer, David Hugh. ''The Oxford Dictionary of Saints''. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0192800582.
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| − | ==External links==
| + | * Brodrick, James. ''Saint Peter Canisius''. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1962. OCLC 11632911 |
| − | ''All links retrieved September 18, 2007'' | + | * Greene, Genard. ''Watchdog on the Rhine: A Story of Saint Peter Canisius''. Notre Dame, IN: Dujarie Press, 1959. OCLC 54952510 |
| − | * [http://www.kanisius.edu/ Canisius College Jakarta's official web site] | + | * Robinson-Hammerstein, Helga. ''European Universities in the Age of Reformation and Counter Reformation''. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1998. ISBN 9781851823185 |
| − | * [http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolese_Kanisius Kolese Kanisius Jakarta in Wikipedia] | + | * Searle, G. W. ''The Counter Reformation''. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1975. ISBN 9780874715293 |
| − | * [http://www.canisius.de/ Website of Canisius Kolleg Berlin, Germany (German)] | + | * Wollaston, D. J. ''Liturgical Catechism''. Scarborough, Ont: Canisius Books, 2008. ISBN 9780980918308; ISBN 0980918308 |
| − | | + | *This article incorporates text from the ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'', a work now in the public domain. |
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| Saint Petrus Canisius
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|
| Born
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May 8 1521(1521-05-08) in Nijmegen in the Duchy of Guelders
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| Died
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December 21 1597 (aged 76)
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| Venerated in
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Roman Catholicism
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| Canonized
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1925
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| Feast
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April 27 or December 21
|
Saint Peter Canisius (May 8, 1521 – December 21, 1597), also known as Petrus Canisius, was an early Jesuit leader who fought against the spread of Protestantism in Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and Switzerland. The restoration of Catholicism in Germany after the Reformation is largely attributed to his work.
Canisius supervised the founding and maintenance of the early German Jesuit colleges, and his frequent travels won him the title "Second Apostle of Germany." He founded colleges at Munich, Innsbruck, Dillingen, Wurzburg, Augsburg, and Vienna. Canisius is also noted for his contributions to the important debates at Worms (1557), the Diet of Augsburg (1559), and the Council of Trent (1545-63). He was an important influence on the Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand I and several other princes, and his preaching is credited with winning back numerous Lutherans to the Catholic side.
A prolific writer and publisher, his most important work was his co-called "Triple Catechism," the most famous catechism of the Counter-Reformation, which was published in more than 400 editions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Saint Peter Canisius was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1864, and later canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church on May 21, 1925 by Pope Pius XI. His feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is currently celebrated on December 21.
Biography
Family and education
Born in Nijmegen in the Duchy of Guelders (until 1549 part of the Holy Roman Empire, now in the Netherlands), Peter's father was the wealthy burgomaster, Jacob Canisius. His mother, Ægidia van Houweningen, died shortly after Peter's birth. In 1536 Peter was sent to Cologne, where he studied arts, civil law, and theology at the university there, receiving the degree of Master of Arts in 1540. His acquaintances included staunch Catholics such as Georg of Skodborg, who had been expelled as archbishop of Lund by the Protestants; Johann Gropper, the canon of the Cologne cathedral; and several Carthusian monks.
Although his father desired him to marry a wealthy young woman, Peter pledged himself to celibacy. In 1543 he visited the Jesuit leader Peter Faber, devoting himself to the Jesuit "Spiritual Exercises" under Faber's direction. Canisius was admitted into the Society of Jesus, which was then only three years old, at Mainz, on May 8, 1543, the first Dutchman to join the Jesuit order.
Early career
Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I
Canisius helped to found the first Jesuit house in Germany at Cologne. He also preached in the city and its suburbs, and debated and taught in the university. In 1546 he was admitted to the Catholic priesthood. Soon after this, he was sent to obtain assistance from Emperor Charles V against the Protestant leader Hermann of Wied, the elector and former Catholic archbishop who had attempted to convert his county to the Protestant cause. In 1547, he participated in the Council of Trent, where he is recorded as having spoken twice to an assembly of theologians. After this he spent several months under the direction of Jesuit founder Ignatius Loyola in Rome.
In 1548 Canisius taught rhetoric at Messina, Sicily. At this time Duke William IV of Bavaria requested Pope Paul III to send him some professors from the Society of Jesus for the University of Ingolstadt, and Canisius was among those selected, reaching the city in 1549 after receiving a doctorate in theology at Bologna. In 1550 he was elected rector of the University of Ingolstadt.
In 1552 he was sent by Ignatius Loyola to Vienna, where he taught theology in the university, preached at the court of Emperor Ferdinand I, and was confessor at the local hospital and prison. Canisius exerted a strong influence on Ferdinand I by warning him that providing more rights to Protestants would endanger his soul. He also visited and ministered to many Austria parishes which had previously been abandoned by the Catholics in the wake of Protestantism's advance.
When it seemed that Ferdinand's son and heir, the future Maximilian II, was about to declare himself Protestant, Canisius convinced Ferdinand to threaten to disinherit Maximilian should he do so. Ferdinand offered Canisius the position of bishop of Vienna on three occasions, but he refused. In 1555 he was present with Ferdinand at the Diet of Augsburg, which officially ended the religious struggle between Catholics and Protestants within the Holy Roman Empire and allowed the German princes to select either Lutheranism or Catholicism within the domains they controlled. In the same year, Pope Julius III himself appointed Canisius as administrator of the bishopric of Vienna for one year, but Peter succeeded in keeping the appointment temporary. Later in 1555, Canisius succeeded in winning approval to open Jesuit colleges at Ingolstadt and Prague, and Ignatius appointed him first Jesuit provincial superior of Upper Germany.
Champion for the Counter-Reformation
By the appointment of the Catholic princes and the order of the pope, Canisius took part in the Colloquy of Worms in 1557, where he acted as the champion of the Catholics in opposition to the Lutheran leader Philipp Melanchthon. There, Canisius is credited with sowing the seeds of discord among the Protestants regarding their doctrines of original sin and justification, forcing the meeting to be dissolved with the Protestants in disarray.
Pope Pius IV sent Peter Canisius as his agent in secretly carrying the decrees of the
Council of Trent to Catholic leaders in Germany.
As a writer, Canisius became especially influential through his "German catechism," a book that defined the basic principles of Catholicism in the German language and found many readers in German-speaking countries. Written from 1555–58, Canisius' catechism was a lucid expression of Catholic doctrines written in the context of widespread Lutheran criticism of the Roman tradition. It would become the most widely read catechism of the Counter-Reformation and went through more than 400 editions by the end of the seventeenth century. He was also a gifted speaker, and his widespread preaching was reportedly so convincing that it attracted hundreds of Protestants back to the Catholic faith.
In 1559 Canisius opened a college in Munich. In 1562 he appeared again at the ongoing Council of Trent, this time as a papal theologian. In the spring of 1563, when the emperor had become estranged from the pope and the Roman curia Canisius strove to reconcile them, enabling the Council of Trent to end peacefully. While Rome praised him for his efforts, however, Ferdinand now began to consider his loyalty suspect.
In 1565, Pius IV sent Canisius, now 43 years of age, to deliver the bulky decrees of the Council of Trent to the bishops in Germany, a dangerous journey through Protestant lands. During this trip, Canisius negotiated with the electors of Mainz and Trier, as well as several important other political leaders and bishops. After Pius IV's death, Canisius requested to be relieved of this assignment by Pius V on the grounds that his activities had aroused suspicions of espionage and interference in politics.
At the Diet of Augsburg in 1566, Canisius reportedly helped convince Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Commendone not to condemn the fragile peace with the Protestants, who had become emboldened under Maximilian II. This is thought to have helped avert a new religious war and to enable the renewal of the Catholic Church in parts of Germany. In the same year, Canisius is credited with bringing the Lutheran count of Helfenstein to the Catholic Church.
Around this time, Canisius was also involved in the deaths of at least two "witches." In 1563, he had written of his concern that witchcraft was increasing "remarkably" in Germany: "Their outrages are horrifying... They bring many to their deaths through their devilish arts, raise storms, and bring frightful harms..."[1] Over the next year he continued teaching, preaching, and establishing new Jesuit educational institutions.
Later career
Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria
In 1569 Canisius returned to Augsburg and preached Lenten sermons in the Church of Saint Mauritius. In 1570, he moved to Innsbruck to serve as the court preacher to Archduke Ferdinand II. In 1575 Pope Gregory XIII sent him with papal messages to the archduke and to the Duke of Bavaria. He attended the Diet of Ratisbon in 1576 as theologian to the papal legate Cardinal Giovanni Morone. By the time he left Greater Germany in 1580, the Jesuit order there had evolved from almost nothing into a powerful tool of the Counter Reformation.
Canisius spent the last 17 years of his life in Fribourg, Switzerland, where he founded the Jesuit college that became the core of today's University of Fribourg.
The city authorities ordered his body to be buried before the high altar of Fribourg's principal church, the Church of Saint Nicolaus, from which it was moved in 1625 to the Church of Saint Michael, the church of the Jesuit college at today's University of Fribourg.
Legacy
Peter Canisius was an important force in influencing the Catholic Church and the Jesuit order to invest substantial efforts to defend the Catholic faith in northern Europe, where he himself was the Counter-Reformation's most effective advocate in the mid-1500s. It is not an exaggeration to say that the existence of Catholicism in Germany and Austria today depends to a large extent on his work. He also convinced Pius V to send yearly subsidies to the Catholic printers of Germany, and he induced the city council of Fribourg to erect and support a printing establishment. He himself was a prolific writer and publisher, with hundreds of works to his credit.
While he was harshly criticized by his contemporary Protestant opponents as a cynic who knowingly defended Catholic errors, he won the respect of later Protestants who recognized his sincerity of faith and praised his moral character.
Soon after his death, reports spread of the miraculous help obtained by invoking his name, and his tomb was visited by many Catholic pilgrims. Beatified in 1864, Saint Peter Canisius was canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1925. Until 1969, his feast day was celebrated on April 27, but is now officially commemorated on December 21. In art, Saint Peter Canisius is often represented with his catechism and other books, or surrounded by children whom he is instructing.
In recognition of his early work in the establishment of Jesuit education, numerous educational and other institutions have been named for Canisius.
See also
Notes
References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Brodrick, James. Saint Peter Canisius. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1962. OCLC 11632911
- Greene, Genard. Watchdog on the Rhine: A Story of Saint Peter Canisius. Notre Dame, IN: Dujarie Press, 1959. OCLC 54952510
- Robinson-Hammerstein, Helga. European Universities in the Age of Reformation and Counter Reformation. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1998. ISBN 9781851823185
- Searle, G. W. The Counter Reformation. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1975. ISBN 9780874715293
- Wollaston, D. J. Liturgical Catechism. Scarborough, Ont: Canisius Books, 2008. ISBN 9780980918308; ISBN 0980918308
- This article incorporates text from the Catholic Encyclopedia, a work now in the public domain.
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