LANCIZIO (Lanczycki or Łęczycki), MIKOLAI. — Jesuit, writer on ascetical theology, born at Nieswiesz (Lithuania) on 10 December 1574, died at Kowno (Lithuania) on 30 March 1653. Reading apologetic works and constant study led him to conversion in 1590 and, after having also converted his father, to enter the Society of Jesus (1592).
He completed his studies at the Collegio Romano, becoming particularly attached to St. Thomas. Ordained a priest (1601), he served at the same College as prefect of spiritual affairs and confessor, sought out also by a great number of bishops, prelates, and Roman families; at the same time he was assigned to assist Fr. N. Orlandino in searching for documents for the history of the Order. In 1606, sent to Poland, he taught Hebrew, Sacred Scripture, and theology at Wilno; then he was rector at Kalisch and Cracow, and afterward provincial of Poland and Lithuania. Nor did he ever cease from ministries directly devoted to souls in those regions, which were greatly in need.
He distinguished himself not only in teaching, governance, and apologetics against Protestant preachers, but also through his profound and sound theological doctrine, joined to a gentle unction and discretion, with which he wrote many ascetical booklets that met with considerable success. Fr. J. Bolland published the complete series of 21: Opuscula spiritualia (2 vols., Antwerp 1650); they were republished several times, in whole or in part, and also translated. Cf., for example, J. Martino, Collectanea Lanciciana (Paris 1877), and the still incomplete edition begun at Cracow in 1883. Some principal booklets: De meditationibus rerum divinarum recte peragendi; De condicione boni superioris (most recent ed., Turin 1901); De efficacia S.mae Eucharistiae ad profectum spiritualem in virtutibus; De praxi divinae praesentiae; De praestantia Instituti S. J.