ABRAHAM of SANTA CHIARA (Abraham a Sancta Clara, secular name Johann Ulrich Megerle). — One of the greatest popular preachers and moralists of Germany, born at Kreenheimstetten (Baden) on 2 July 1644, died at Vienna on 10 December 1709. After his early studies at the Jesuit gymnasium in Ingolstadt (1656–59) and at the Benedictine gymnasium in Salzburg (1659–62), he entered the Discalced Augustinians at Maria-Brunn (near Vienna) in 1662; he took his vows there on 14 August 1663 with the name “Abraham a Sancta Clara.” Because of the Turkish threat, he began his studies in philosophy and theology at Prague, continuing 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 sanctuary of Taxa (near Augsburg in Bavaria), from 1670 to 1672, he was sent to Vienna, where he served as vice-prior and prior of the convent (1677–1683). Leopold I appointed him in 1677 court preacher (“Concionator Aulicus Caesares”). During the plague (1679), he revealed himself as a vigorous popular writer with his Merk’s Wien! (Vienna 1680), a dramatic description of the horrors experienced and a moving warning to survivors. From 1683 to 1689 he was in Graz, where, as the Turks approached, he launched the ardent appeal to the Christian world Auff, auff, ihr Christen! (Vienna 1683), which served as a model for Schiller’s famous sermon by the Capuchin in Wallenstein Lager (1795). In 1686 he made a first trip to Rome, another in 1689. Returning to Vienna, he served for three years as provincial. After a third trip to Rome (1692), he spent two years at Maria-Brunn as novice master and vice-prior, remaining definitively in Vienna from 1695 onward.
A man of exceptional activity and wide literary culture, endowed with a burning imagination and fertile originality, a poet, writer, humorist, and at the same time a sure theologian and profound psychologist. A. put his rare gifts at the service of the apostolate. The charm of his person, the immediacy and plasticity of his style, the warm sincerity and refined wit attracted the masses. In his sermons and writings, he employed sacred and profane learning, erudition and personal experience, fables and wordplay (of which he was an unsurpassed master), all with the sole aim of the moral uplift of the people.
Among his numerous writings (whose very titles reveal their lively vivacity), we mention only the principal ones: Reimb dich oder ich liss dich (Salzburg 1684), a collection of sermons and various pamphlets, including Merk’s Wien (of which K. Bertsche produced a new edition, Leipzig 1926), and Auff, auff, ihr Christen! (new edition edited by A. Sauer, Vienna 1883). In Judas der Erzschelm (Judas the Arch-Rogue), in 4 volumes (Salzburg 1686–95), he narrates the story of the traitor and draws from it 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 practical ascetical treatise; Etwas für alle… (Würzburg 1699); Wunderlicher Traum von einem grossen Narrennest (Salzburg 1703, new edition by K. Bertsche [Universal-Bibliothek, no. 6399], Leipzig 1923); Hellames Gemisch-Gemasch… (Würzburg 1704), of which an Italian translation exists (Miscuglio salutare, Trento 1709); Ein Karren voller Narren (Salzburg 1704, new edition by K. Bertsche [Hausen’s Bücherei, vol. 85], Saarlouis 1910); Huy und Phuy der Welt… (Würzburg 1707, Italian trans.: Coraggio e viltà, Trento 1717); Centifolium stultorum… (Vienna-Nuremberg 1709, new edition by K. Bertsche, Der Renspiegel von Abraham a S. Cl., Munich-Gladbach 1923); Wohlangefüllter Weinkeller… (Nuremberg 1710); Besonders möblierte und gezierte Totenkapelle (Nuremberg 1710; new edition by K. Bertsche, Munich-Gladbach 1922); Stilicher Krameladen (2 vols., Würzburg 1710), a collection of sermons. Abrahamisches Bescheidesen… (Vienna 1717) and Lutherhüt… (3 vols., Vienna 1721–23) are collections of sermons left in manuscript by A. and published by Alessandro a Laterre Christi, with many variations and additions.
A complete edition of A.’s works is still lacking. The Passau-Lindau edition (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, 1923, 1923, Leipzig 1931), we owe the publication of some recently rediscovered writings: Der geflügelte Merkurius (Hausen’s Bücherei, vol. 69, 2nd ed., Saarlouis 1923); Der Urmerkur von 1701 (Schriften zur deutschen Literatur für die Görresgesellschaft, vol. 4); Gedrucktes und Ungedrucktes. Erstmals nach den Handschriften herausgegeben (Religiöse Quellenschriften…, fasc. 49, Düsseldorf 1928); Neun neue Predigten von Abraham a S. Cl. aus der Wiener Hs. cod. 11571 herausgegeben (Neudrucke deutscher Literatur-Werke des 16. u. 17. Jahrhunderts, nos. 278–81, Halle 1930).