LAUER, ALOYSIUS. – General Minister of the Friars Minor after the union of their families (1897), b. at Katholisch-Willenroth in Hesse on 28 Aug. 1833, d. at Sigmaringen-Gorheim in Hohenzollern on 21 Aug. 1901. During the *Kulturkampf*, as superior of the convents in Thuringia, he was forced into exile in Holland, Belgium, France, and the United States.
His ardent desire, even while belonging to the Franciscan family of the Recollects, was the union of the various families of the Order, for which he worked tirelessly with energy and discernment. He sought this union more for religious reasons than for diplomatic ones. He was among the founders of the *Acta Ordinis Minorum* (1881); he authored the second volume of the *Incitamenta seraphica* (his spiritual theory); and he prepared the “code of union” (drafts of 1889 and 1895). At the behest of Leo XIII, he carried out the regional fusion of the provinces. He was esteemed as a man of prayer and for his prudence.