ABRAHAM OF SANTA CHIARA (Abraham a Sancta Clara, secular name Johann Ulrich Megerle). - One of the greatest preachers and popular moralists of Germany, b. at Kreenheimstetten (Baden) on 2 July 1644, d. at Vienna on 1 Dec. 1709. After his first studies at the Jesuit gymnasium in Ingolstadt (1656-59) and at that of the Benedictines in Salzburg (1659-62), in 1662 he entered the Discalced Augustinians at Maria-Brunn (near Vienna); there he took his vows on 14 Aug. 1663 under the name of "Abraham a Sancta Clara." On account of the Turkish danger he began his studies of philosophy and theology in Prague, to continue them from 1665 in Vienna. Ordained priest there on 8 June 1668, he soon distinguished himself as an orator of exceptional talent.
After two years of preaching at the shrine of Taxa (near Augsburg in Bavaria), from 1670 to 1672, he was sent to Vienna, where he was vice-prior and prior of the convent (1677-1683). Leopold I appointed him in 1677 preacher of the imperial court ("Concionator Aulicus Caesareus"). On the occasion of the plague (1679), he revealed himself as a popular writer of great vigor with his Merk's Wien! (Vienna 1680), a dramatic description of the horrors he had lived through and a moving warning to the survivors. From 1683 to 1689 he was in Graz, where, as the Turks drew near, he launched his ardent appeal to the Christian world Auff, auff, ihr Christen! (Vienna 1683), which served Schiller as a model for the famous sermon of the Capuchin in Wallensteins Lager (1795). In 1686 he made a first journey to Rome, another in 1689. Having returned to Vienna, he was for three years provincial. After a third journey to Rome (1692), he was for two years at Maria-Brunn master of novices and vice-prior, to remain from 1695 definitively in Vienna.
A man of exceptional activity and vast literary culture, endowed with ardent imagination and fertile inventive originality, a poet, writer, humorist, and at the same time a sure theologian and profound psychologist, A. placed his rare gifts at the service of the apostolate. The fascination of his person, the immediacy and plasticity of his style, his warm sincerity and fine wit carried through the crowds. In his sermons and in his writings, he employs sacred and profane learning, erudition and personal experience, fables and plays on words (of which he was an unsurpassed master), for the sole purpose of the moral elevation of the people.
Among his numerous writings (from whose very titles their lively vivacity appears) we cite only the principal ones: Reimb dich oder ich liss dich (Salzburg 1684), a collection of sermons and various opuscules, among them Merk's Wien (of which K. Bertsche edited a new ed., Leipzig 1926), and Auff, auff, ihr Christen! (new ed. edited by A. Sauer, Vienna 1883). In Judas der Erzschelm (Judas the Arch-Rogue), in 4 volumes (Salzburg 1686-95), he narrates the vicissitudes of the traitor and draws from them the occasion for moral applications to the most varied circumstances of daily life; Grammatica religiosa... (Salzburg 1691), a collection of exhortations for beginners in the spiritual life, a treatise of ascetics of a practical character; Etwas für alle... (Würzburg 1699); Wunderlicher Traum von einem grossen Narrennest (Salzburg 1703, new ed. by K. Bertsche [Universal-Bibliothek, n. 6399], Leipzig 1923); Heiltames Gemisch-Gemisch... (Würzburg 1704), of which there is an Italian translation (Miscuglio salutare, Trento 1709); Ein Karren voller Narren (Salzburg 1704, new ed. by K. Bertsche [Hausens Bücherei, Band 85], Saarlouis 1919); Huy und Phy der Welt... (Würzburg 1707, Italian trans.: Coraggio e città, Trento 1717); Centifolium stultorum... (Vienna-Nuremberg 1709; new ed. by K. Bertsche, Der Narrenspiegel von Abraham a s. Cl., München-Gladbach 1925); Wohlangefüllter Weinkeller... (Nuremberg 1710); Besonders möblierte und gezierte Totenkapelle (Nuremberg 1719; new ed. by K. Bertsche, München-Gladbach 1922); Geistlicher Kramerladen (2 vols., Würzburg 1710), a collection of sermons. Abrahamisches Bescheidessen... (Vienna 1717) and Laubenhütt... (3 vols., Vienna 1721-23) are collections of sermons left in manuscript by A. and published by Alessandro a Latere Christi, with many variations and additions.
A complete edition of A.'s works is so far lacking. That of Passau-Lindau (1834-54) contains various spurious works; while some authentic writings, e.g. Centifolium and Totenkapelle, are omitted. A good selection was published by H. Strigl (6 vols., Vienna 1904-1906), while to K. Bertsche, besides the editions of individual works already mentioned and various anthologies (Bonn 1911, Freiburg im Br. 1917, 1918, 1922, 1923, Leipzig 1931), is also due the publication of some recently rediscovered writings: Der geflügelte Merkurius (Hausens Bücherei, Bd. 69, 2nd ed., Saarlouis 1922); Der Urmerkur von 1701 (Schriften zur deutschen Literatur f. d. Görresgesellschaft, Bd. 4); Gedrucktes und Ungedrucktes. Erstmals nach den Handschriften herausg. (Religiöse Quellenschriften..., Heft 49, Düsseldorf 1928); Neun neue Predigten von Abraham a s. Cl. aus der Wiener Hs. cod. 11571 herausg. (Neudrucke deutscher Literatur-Werke des 16. u. 17. Jahrhunderts, nn. 278-81, Halle 1930).