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Peter Canisius; a major figure in the counter-Reformation
To understand who the Jesuits were, one must study their founders. Ignatius of Loyola was born in Spain of noble parents. After a carefree youth until he entered the army and was wounded. During his convalescence he had a religious conversion. His "spiritual exercises" are used to this day.
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ost major movements have their heroes. The
Reformation had Luther, Melanchthon, Tyndale, Calvin and many others.
The Catholic counter-reformation also had its notables. Among them were
Ignatius of Loyola, Xavier--and Peter Canisius.
After the Reformation began, the Roman Church often tried to hold its
own with heavy-handed tactics: excommunication, ridicule, armed force.
Some churchmen recognized that these methods were doomed to failure. What
was need was persuasion. The northern church needed honorable, well-trained
priests, able to answer the rhetoric of the reformers and shine by example
before the common people. Canisius became such a priest himself and set
out to recruit and train others. Hundreds of them. To do it, he founded
colleges. Seven of them.
Peter was born at Nijmegen in the Netherlands. His father was a wealthy
magistrate who picked out a wealthy girl for Peter to marry; but Peter
wasn't playing ball. He vowed himself to chastity. A few years later,
he placed himself under the instruction of a Jesuit, Peter Faber. Faber
guided him through Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises. These are a
deep course of meditation, prayer, and self-examination with the intent
of determining and following God's will for one's life.
"Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ, save me. Blood of Christ,
inebriate me. Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Passion of Christ,
strengthen me..." *
On May 5, 1543, Peter Canisius was admitted into the Society of Jesus
(Jesuits) in Mainz. This day was also his twenty-second birthday--and
a first step in his efforts to restore the Catholic Church in northern
Europe.
Canisius believed that to defend Catholic truths with the pen was just
as important as to convert Hindus. People listened to him because he wrote
and spoke without the bitterness and ridicule that was so common among
other writers on both sides in those days. He taught at major Catholic
universities. Most men would consider their life fulfilled if they founded
a single college. Canisius founded colleges at Augsburg, Dillingen, Freiburg,
Innsbruck, Munich, Vienna and Wurzburg. Thanks to his efforts, priests,
teachers and other Catholic workers got the grounding they needed to rebuild
their church.
Canisius had the ear of the emperor. He also had the ear of the common
people, who flocked to hear him as he preached in German towns. But his
greatest influence came through the catechism he wrote. It was well-organized
and easy to understand that a special version was printed to teach children
in Catholic schools.
Resources:
- Braunsberger, Otto. "Blessed Peter Canisius." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
- "Canisius, St. Peter." The Oxford Dictionary of the
Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone.
Oxford, 1997.
- The Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation. Editor in chief
Hans J. Hillerbrand. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
- *Loyola, Ignatius. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, translated by Anthony Mottola. Image Books.
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