DENIS, MICHAEL. - Austrian Jesuit, learned bibliographer and German poet, b. 27 Sept. 1729 at Schärding am Inn, d. in Vienna on 29 Sept. 1800. A pupil at the Jesuit gymnasium in Passau, and a member of the Order from 1747, after teaching at Graz and Klagenfurt he assumed in 1759 the inspection of studies and the chair of literature at the Theresianum, the military academy of Vienna. From then on D. remained in the Austrian capital. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus (1773) he held the administration of the Garelli library, and in 1791 he was appointed first curator of the Imperial library. D. was an effective educator of youth, and had a vast and profound influence on German-Austrian culture.
He published important bibliographical works, besides ancient manuscripts (among them 25 unpublished sermons of St. Augustine from a 12th-century codex); he illustrated the history of literature; he distinguished himself through his poetic and linguistic activity. He made Klopstock and Ossian, Haller and Uz known, placed in the hands of youth things drawn from the best modern works in German verse, gave the language softer and more elegant forms, and enlightened the good taste of his age. D. was a composer of carmina and of numerous sacred hymns for choirs, some of which have passed into history (the Hier liegt vor deiner Majestät set to music by Haydn, the diocesan songbook Geistliche Lieder zum Gebrauch der hohen Metropolitankirche in Wien with the well-known Advent hymn, Tauet, Himmel, den Gerechten).