ENRICO of NÖRDLINGEN. — Priest of the diocese of Augsburg, spiritual director and preacher, died after November 1351.
In the dispute between the Avignonese popes and Lodovico il Bavaro, E. rigorously followed the Church’s side. From 1335 to 1336 he went to Avignon. Expelled from Nördlingen in 1338 for observing the interdict. E. lived as a pilgrim priest in Constance, with a long stay in Basel, where he met Teutero and many “friends of God” and achieved great success, along the Upper Rhine (Strasbourg, Sulz) and the Lower Rhine (Cologne, Aachen). From Bamberg he brought relics of S. Henry and S. Cunegonda to Basel in 1347. After various visits to Nördlingen, his return to Nördlingen in 1350, and a visit to Engelthal, E. disappears from history in 1351.
A great admirer of the Sacred Scriptures and S. Thomas, E. was not a mystic, nor did he possess a properly mystical doctrine. Without lofty speculation, he was a practical spiritual director, attuned to affective spirituality and driven by a notable zeal to lead souls to union with God. His influence and success derived from his amiable character, his rich feeling, at times gentle and exuberant, his sincere piety, and his appreciation of mysticism.
E. has three merits in the field of religious literature: his correspondence with the b. Margherita Ebner (1332–50), which constitutes the first genuine correspondence in the German language; the translation from Low German into the language of Upper Germany of Fliesende Licht der Gottheit and Rivelnazioni of Matelda di Magdeburgo, undertaken in Basel around 1344–45, thereby preserving this important text for us while the original has been lost; and the order he gave the b. Ebner in 1344 to write down her spiritual experiences. The correspondence with Ebner and her Rivelnazioni were published by Strauch, while Matelda’s Rivelnazioni were published by Fr. G. Morel, Das Fliesende Licht der Gottheit (Regensburg 1869).