LANSPERGER (Lanspergio), Johann (Justus von Landsberg). - Carthusian monk, writer on asceticism, b. at Landsberg in 1489 or 1490, d. at Cologne on 11 Aug. 1539. His family name was Gerecht, whence the Latin Iustus. Having entered the Carthusian monastery of Cologne (1509), he became master of novices there (1520-30), then passed as prior to that of Constave; but the climate and internal dissensions soon forced him to return to Cologne.

Except for two polemical works, written in German, against Luther, his other works, in Latin, treat ascetic subjects: commentaries, in the form of homilies, on the New Testament, Sunday sermons, meditations on the life and passion of Christ. The central concept he develops always remains God's love for men and the return that men must give to God; he also speaks, frequently and in a moving and movingly effective style, of the Sacred Heart, inculcating devotion to it and its imitation, in terms that prelude and prepare the later revelations of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. He can therefore be considered one of the most valid precursors of the devotion propagated by the Saint.

Of the Latin works, collected in a new and careful edition by the Carthusian monastery of Notre-Dame-des-Prés (5 vols., Tournai 1890), mention should be made of the treatises: Enchiridion militiae Christianae, Divini amoris pharetra, and especially the part of the latter entitled Alloquium Iesu Christi ad animam fidelem, which were often published separately from the 16th century onward and translated into many languages.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: V. Boutrais, Lansperge-le-Chartrieux et la dévotion au Sacré Coeur, Paris 1878; R. Richstäter, Die Herz-Jesu-Vererhrung des deutschen Mittelalters, 2nd ed., Regensburg 1924, p. 290 ff.; id., Christus frömmigkeit, Cologne 1949, pp. 376 ff., 412 ff.

Celestino Testore

@incollection{ec7_lansperger_lanspergio_johann_i, author = {Testore, Celestino}, title = {Lansperger (Lanspergio), johann (iustus von landsberg)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {896--897}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/lansperger-lanspergio-johann-iustus-von-landsberg} }

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Lansperger (Lanspergio), Johann (Justus von Landsberg)

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