GÖRRES, GUIDO. - Religious writer for the people and for youth, b. at Koblenz on 28 May 1805, d. at Munich on 14 July 1852.
He always lived in the shadow of his far more celebrated father Johann Joseph Görres (v.), whom he survived by only about four years. In comparison with the latter’s “prophetic” power, Guido was “of a reflective candour, tending toward the poetic” (D.B. Haneberg [v.] in the funeral address). He soon abandoned the scholarly career, begun with fine promise in history and philology, in order to devote himself, following his affective disposition, to educational religious literature.
He distinguished himself as a popular hagiographer of warm tone: Nikolaus von Flüe (1831), Johanna von Are (1834). Even as a publicist he remained faithful to his reflective disposition; until his death he was co-editor of the Historisch-politische Blätter, which he had founded with others in 1838. Excellent is his translation (1839) of the De Imitatione Christi. Among his various poetic attempts, the Marienlieder, composed in Rome in 1842, stand out: in the taste of the period, yet profoundly felt, some of them are still today among the hymns cherished by German Catholics.