Monks Germany
Abraham a Sancta Clara, real name Johann Ulrich Megerle, was an Augustinian monk and satirist, court preacher in Vienna.
Possessing an inimitable style of preaching that included folksy humor and harsh acrimony, Abraham was very popular with his contemporaries. He fearlessly scourged human vices, using both high pathos and puns, while conveying religious and moral messages. Some 600 of his recorded sermons on various subjects have survived.
Johannes Busch was a major Dutch clergyman and reformed theologian.
As a monastic reformer and chronicler, the Augustinian canon of Windesheim, Johannes Busch is one of the most prominent figures of the Devotio moderna ("New Piety") movement in Catholicism. With his historiographical works Chronicle of the Monastery of Windesheim and Liber de reformatione monasteriorum he shaped the association of the Windesheim monastery and the late medieval observance movement.
Athanasius Kircher was a German scholar, inventor, professor of mathematics and oriental studies, and a friar of the Jesuit order.
Kircher knew Greek and Hebrew, did scientific and humanities research in Germany, and was ordained in Mainz in 1628. During the Thirty Years' War he was forced to flee to Rome, where he remained for most of his life, serving as a kind of intellectual and information center for cultural and scientific information drawn not only from European sources but also from an extensive network of Jesuit missionaries. He was particularly interested in ancient Egypt and attempted to decipher hieroglyphics and other riddles. Kircher also compiled A Description of the Chinese Empire (1667), which was long one of the most influential books that shaped the European view of China.
A renowned polymath, Kircher conducted scholarly research in a variety of disciplines, including geography, astronomy, mathematics, languages, medicine, and music. He wrote some 44 books, and more than 2,000 of his manuscripts and letters have survived. He also assembled one of the first natural history collections.
Werner Rolewinck (Latin: Wernerus Rolewinkius) was a German chronicler, historian, and theologian.
Werner Rolewinck was a Cartesian monk. His best known and most important work is Fasciculus temporum, a history from the creation of the world to Pope Sixtus IV. Already during his lifetime this work was republished many times in Latin, French, Dutch, and German. Drawing on major Christian historiographical sources such as Orosius and Eusebius, Fasciculus presents the history of the world in the form of a genealogy, a traditional historiographical structure dating back to late antiquity.
Another famous work by Rolewink is a description of the manners and customs of his homeland entitled De laude veteris Saxsoniæ nunc Westphaliæ dictæ.
Jan Verkade, birth name Johannes Sixtus Gerhardus Verkade, later changed to Willibrord Verkade, was a Dutch and German Benedictine monk, Post-Impressionist and Symbolist painter.
Jan was captivated by art from his youth and began studying painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, later in Paris he met Paul Gauguin, Paul Sérusier and other Symbolists, which played a major role in his worldview. In the last years of the 19th century, Verkade joined the Nabis (Les Nabis), a group of Symbolist artists. Fascinated by esoteric mysticism, the Kabbalah and Eastern magical teachings, he, however, adhered to the canons of Christianity.
In 1893 Verkade went to a Benedictine monastery in Boiron, Germany, painted churches and monasteries, and in 1902 he became a priest and changed his name to Willibrord Verkade. He continued to paint until 1927, but was no longer able to reach the level of his French period, considered his best period. However, he made a significant contribution to the Beuron school of art, which was founded by a confederation of Benedictine monks in Germany at the end of the 19th century. Up until his death in 1946, Verkade led a reclusive life, writing several religious, historical, and scientific linguistic works over the years.
Ludolf of Saxony (German: Ludolf von Sachsen), also known as Ludolf der Kartäuser, was a Roman Catholic theologian and Christian writer of German origin.
The major work of his life was Vita Christi (Life of Christ), also known as Speculum vitae Christi (Mirror of the Life of Christ), completed in 1374. The book is not only a biography of Jesus, but also a history, commentaries by church fathers, and a series of dogmatic and moral reflections, spiritual teachings, meditations, and prayers. This work was very popular in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and was first printed in the 1470s.