GRIMMINCK, CAROLUS LUDOVICUS. – Flemish mystic, born into a patrician family at Ypres on 28 May 1676, died at Watou on 12 November 1728. Ordained a priest in 1700, he was entrusted with pastoral care in various parishes of Flanders.
Drawn onto the path of mortification, poverty, detachment, and absolute disinterestedness, in response to a divine inspiration he withdrew in 1714 as a hermit into the solitude of Monts-des-Cats, in order to unite himself more freely with God. His spiritual notes, scattered among his notes on the Exercises of 1713, 1721, and 1723, in his letters, and in excerpts from s. Agostino and s. Teresa, present the moving picture of his faithful and continual ascent, which led him to uninterrupted contemplation.
BIBL.: R. Persyn, Un mystique flamand, Charles G. Lilla 1925; P. Optatus, De Bronnen van Karel G.s. Spiritualiteit, in Ons Geestelijk Erf., 22 (1948), pp. 369–76. Alberto Ampe