ADOLFO di ESSEN. - Carthusian ascetical writer, born in the second half of the fourteenth century. After studying philosophy, law, and theology with distinction at Cologne, he entered the Carthusian monastery of Trier in 1378, where he was prior from 1409 to 1415. The chronicles describe him as vir pius, doctus et sanctus. He died of the plague on 4 June 1439, in the repute of sanctity. He left several manuscripts in which he described the visions and divine charisms received from heaven, including the revelation concerning the Rosary.
As confessor to b. Margherita, Duchess of Lorraine, he wrote the following treatises for the use of his penitent: De commendatione Rosarii; Vita Servatoris nostri; Exercitium de triplici meditatione; De exercitio remissionis peccatorum. The manuscripts were preserved in the library of the Carthusian monastery of Cologne before its suppression. He also wrote the Vita B. Margaritae Lotharingiae Ducissae, published in the collection Faragines litterariae, XIV, pp. 399-420.