#peter canisius

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December 21 | Feast of St. Peter Canisius, priest and Doctor of the Church

"My Savior, you told me to draw the waters of my salvation from your wellsprings. I am eager that the streams of faith, hope, and love, should flow into me from You."

Peter was born at Nijmegen, the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and the ninth largest of the Netherlands, on May 8, 1521 into a prominent political family. Jacob Kanis, his father, was a wealthy burgomaster. Aegidia van Houweningen, his mother, died shortly after Peter's birth.

When Peter was 19 years old, he studied canon law at Louvain and received his master of arts degree at the University of Cologne in 1540. Three years later, while attending a retreat given by St. Peter Faber at Mainz, he decided to enter the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).

After some years of prayer and study in Cologne, Peter was ordained a priest in 1546, and began a career of writing and preaching and went to the Council of Trent for two sessions as a delegate. He returned to Rome and was commissioned by St. Ignatius of Loyola, to teach in the first Jesuit school at Messina.

He went to Ingolstadt, Germany in 1549, at the request of William IV, Duke of Bavaria. Three years later, King Ferdinand asked Peter to go to Vienna in Austria. Peter's mission in Germany was to labor for the church in its struggle with the Reformation. He taught at universities in Ingolstadt and Vienna, and his preaching caused a religious revival among the Catholic people.

In 1556, he founded a new college at Prague (in the present-day Czech Republic), and won the respect of both Protestants and Catholics. From 1559 to 1565, Peter lived in Augsburg, as the Jesuit superior and directed the ministry of his community for the revival of Catholicism in southern Germany.

Peter was a prolific writer and his famous catechism, Summa Doctrinae Christianae or 'Summary of Christian Doctrine', was published in 1555. He produced a number of well-known catechisms, theological writings, editions of the writings of early Church theologians, as well as controversial essays. In 1580, he went to Fribourg in Switzerland to establish a university - the Jesuit College Saint-Michel (Collège Saint-Michel), which trained many future leaders and scholars that includes Swiss historian and writer Gonzague de Reynold and Fr. Joseph-Marie Timon-David, the founder of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Peter suffered a stroke which left him partially paralyzed, but he continued to preach and write with the aid of a secretary until his death on December 21, 1597 at the age of 76 in Fribourg, leaving behind a vast legacy of apostolic works for the church he loved so dearly.

Peter Canisius has been called the 'Second Apostle of Germany' - the first being St. Boniface.

In his diary, he recalled the first commission he received from Rome to go to labor among the German people: 'You know, Lord, how strongly and how often you committed Germany to my care on that very day. I was to continue to be solicitous for it thereafter; I was to desire to live and die for it."

He is beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1864, and many years later on May 21, 1925, Pope Pius XI canonized him a saint and declared a Doctor of the Church.

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THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT PETER CANISIUS The Jesuit Priest and Holy Apostle of the Catholic Press Feast Day: December 21

"Better that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were, to be in collusion with the Church’s enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith."

Peter Canisius, who is one of the major figures during the Protestant Reformation, called the 'Apostle of the Catholic Press' and known as the Second Apostle of Germany, was born in Nijmegen (located in Gelderland province), Holland (The Netherlands), on May 8, 1521, his mother died shortly after he was born.

In order to please his father Jacob, who is a burgomaster, he studied law for a few months at the University of Louvain. Realizing however, that he was not called to this career, he took a vow of celibacy and went to study theology in Cologne, Germany, where he earned a master's degree at the age of 19. There, while attending a retreat preached by St. Peter Faber, one of the first disciples of Ignatius of Loyola, he decided to enter the Society of Jesus.

After his ordination to the priesthood, he became famous for his talent in preaching. Ignatius considered him a model religious, prepared to go anywhere and to do anything. From Rome, Peter was sent to Germany, where he counteracted the Protestant doctrines and effected a religious revival among the people.

In 1552, Peter was called to Vienna, Austria, where 90% of the people had abandoned the Catholic faith. Many monasteries lay desolate, and not a single priest had been ordained for 20 years. Peter won the heart of the people by his works of charity. He ministered to the sick, visited the prisoners, and cared for the poor.

Realizing the great importance of mass media, he promoted the Catholic press to the best of his ability. During his lifetime, his catechism was reprinted over 200 times and translated into 15 languages.

Despite his success and popularity, Peter remained humble and submissive. He refused to be consecrated bishop of Vienna and Provincial of his order. He died at the age of 76 due to a stroke in Fribourg, Switzerland on December 21, 1597.

Canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and declared a Doctor of the Church the same year, his major shrine can be found in Fribourg.