LAUER, ALOVSIUS. - First Minister General of the Friars Minor after the union of their families (1897), born at Katholisch-Willenroth in Hesse on 28 Aug.
1833, died at Sigmaringen-Gorheim in Hohenzollern on 21 Aug. 1901. During the Kulturkampf, as superior of the convents of Thuringia, he was compelled to go into exile in Holland, Belgium, France, and the United States.
His ardent desire, while he still belonged to the Franciscan family of the Recollects, was the union of the different families of the Order, for which he worked tirelessly with energy and awareness. He desired this union more by religious than by diplomatic means. He was among the founders of the Acta Ordinis Minorum (1881); the second volume of the Incitamenta seraphica (his spiritual theory) is due to him; he prepared the “code of union” (versions of 1889 and 1895). By order of Leone XIII he carried out the regional amalgamation of the provinces. He was esteemed as a man of prayer and for his prudence.