BELLECIUS, LUDWIG. - German ascetical writer, b. at Friburgo in Brisgovia on 15 Feb. 1704, Jesuit from 1719, d. at Augusta on 21 Apr. 1757. He taught philosophy and theology for several years; then he was sent to Brazil, where he taught theology for four years at Parà and was a missionary in Marañon. Having returned to Europe before 1750, he resumed teaching theology at Friburgo; in 1752 he was instructor of the fathers of the third probation and subsequently minister of the college of Augusta.
He owes his reputation to his writings, often reprinted and translated (see Sommervogel): Christiama pie moriens (2 vols., Friburgo in Br. 1749); Virtutis solidae praecipua impedimenta, subsidia, incitamenta (3 vols., Ratisbona 1755), a methodical manual intended chiefly for young religious. His Medulla necessos sive Exercitia S. P. Ignatii de Loyola (Augusta 1757), a vigorous commentary in the form of a course of eight-day spiritual exercises, was subsequently taken up by various authors in different forms; Fr. A. Bresciani prepared an Italian edition of it (Torino 1842), reprinted by Marietti (ibid. 1915; 1926; 23rd thousand).
BBL.: Sommervogel, I, cols. 1260-65; VIII, cols. 1808-1809; E. Lamalle, s. V. in DHC. VII, cols. 836-37.