St. Peter Canisius is rightly considered the second apostle of Germany after St. Boniface.
Peter
Kanis – his name was later Latinized to “Canisius” – was born in
Nijmegen, Holland, then a German province of the archdiocese of Cologne.
He originally thought of becoming a lawyer to please his father, a
wealthy public official, but after a retreat directed by St. Peter
Faber, one of the first companions of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the young
Canisius decided to become a Jesuit.
Shortly after his ordination
to the priesthood, he accompanied the Bishop of Augsburg to the Council
of Trent and attended two sessions of the Council as a delegate. He was
later summoned to Rome by St. Ignatius who retained him by his side for
five months.
In response to an appeal by Duke William IV of
Bavaria for Catholic professors capable of countering heretical
teachings then permeating the schools, after his solemn profession,
Peter Canisius was sent to Germany with two other brother Jesuits.
From
then on Peter Canisius spent his life helping people in Germany,
Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and Switzerland to hold firmly to their
Catholic Faith in opposition to the errors of the Protestant reformation
then spreading throughout those countries. The restoration of the
Catholic Faith in Germany is largely due to the work of the Jesuit
fathers which Canisius led.
He
combined powerful preaching, with teaching and ceaseless works of
charity. In Austria, he at first preached to almost empty churches,
partially due to his Rhineland German which grated on the ears of the
Viennese. But his tireless ministrations to the sick and dying during
an outbreak of the plague, won the citizens’ hearts, after which his
accent was of little importance.
The king, the nuncio and even
the Pope wished to appoint him to the vacant see of Vienna, but St.
Ignatius would only allow him to administer the diocese for a year
without episcopal orders. It was at this time that St. Peter began work
on his famous catechism, Summary of Christian Doctrine.
Appointed
to Prague, he practically won the city back to the Faith. The college
he established in the city was so highly regarded for its excellent
academics that even Protestants sought to send their sons to it. During
this time he was also made Provincial Superior of the Jesuit Order for
an area covering Czechoslovakia, South Germany, Austria and Bohemia.
Not
only did Peter Canisius found several colleges, but prepared the way
for many others. He also wrote extensively throughout his life. His
books were catechetical, instructional, historical and apologetic,
refuting the errors of Protestantism.
Canisius was already
advanced in age when he was instructed to found a college in Fribourg,
Switzerland, capital of the Catholic canton, sandwiched between two
powerful Protestant neighbors. Surmounting all obstacles, including
numerous financial difficulties, St. Peter founded a university
operative to this day. The preservation of the Catholic faith in
Fribourg in a critical time of its history can be confidently attributed
to him.
Increasing bodily illness obliged Peter Canisius to give
up preaching. In 1591 he suffered a paralytic seizure which brought him
near death, but recovering sufficiently, he continued writing with the
help of a secretary until shortly before his passing on December 21,
1597.
Peter Canisius was simultaneously canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1925 by Pope Pius XI.
Second photo by: GFreihalter
No comments:
Post a Comment