Peter Canisius

Timeline

1. 1521–1549Nijmegen · GelderlandBorn in Nijmegen in the Duchy of Guelders to a city official, he took a master's degree at Cologne University in 1540. On 8 May 1543 in Mainz, guided by co-founder Peter Fabre, he completed the Spiritual Exercises and joined the Society of Jesus, among its earliest Dutch members. Ordained in 1546, he attended several sessions of the Council of Trent in 1547 with Cardinal Otto Truchsess, made his full vows before Ignatius in Rome in 1549, and was promptly sent to the German lands.
2. 1549–1569Vienna · ViennaHe taught theology at Ingolstadt from 1549, was sent by Ignatius to Vienna in 1552 to preach at St. Stephen's Cathedral and at the court of Ferdinand I, and declined the see of Vienna three times, serving only briefly as vicar capitular. At the emperor's request he published the large Summa Doctrinae Christianae in 1555, followed by shorter versions for students and children in 1556 and 1558, becoming the most widely used Catholic catechism in German-speaking lands. In 1556 he became the first provincial of Upper Germany, founded colleges at Ingolstadt, Prague, Augsburg, and elsewhere, and attended the 1555 Diet of Augsburg.
3. 1569–1597Fribourg · FribourgAfter stepping down as provincial he continued visiting colleges, preaching, and revising the catechisms; his three catechisms had printed some two hundred editions in over a dozen languages in his lifetime. In 1580 he settled in the Swiss Catholic canton of Fribourg, founding a Jesuit college and consolidating the Catholic educational network north of the Alps. He died in Fribourg on 21 December 1597. Canonized in 1925 and named a Doctor of the Church, he was called the 'Second Apostle of the Germans.'