GERARDO di STERNGASSEN. — Dominican mystic of the fourteenth century. Giovanni di Sterngassen (v.), G. was a lecturer in theology and a trusted man of many people, as is shown by his having served as an executor of wills. Although a fellow friar of Eckhart’s in Cologne, he was not influenced by the latter’s doctrine, but adhered to the school and texts of St Thomas.
He left a sermon preached to the Antonines of Cologne, preserved in the Vita dei santi of Hermann of Fritzlar, published by F. Pfeiffer in Deutsche Mystiker, I, Leipzig 1845, pp. 60–63, and, as his principal work, the Medela animae languentii, whose somewhat abridged text in the Munich cod. Clm. 13587 was described by M. Grabmann, who compared it with the two parts preserved in manuscripts in Trier, namely part 1 (Pratum animae) in cod. 589 of the Municipal Library of Trier and part 2 (Medela) in codex 126 of the Major Seminary of Trier.
In part 1, G. deals with the vices, giving examples from the lives of the Desert Fathers and descriptions of the conflict between vices and virtues; he does not remain silent about the condition of his contemporaries; after mentioning the vicious, he depicts the eschatological states. Part 2 is devoted to the doctrine of the Christian virtues, preceded by an exposition of the question of grace and merit, all in close dependence on St Thomas. G. carefully explains charity as friendship with God and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of contemplation is found in the chapter on the Beatitudes. The explanation of the contemplative life is more extensive than in St Thomas, enlivened by examples, and more theological than psychological.