LESSIO (Lessius, LEYS), LEONARDO. — Jesuit, theologian, spiritual writer. Born on 1 October 1554 at Brecht (Antwerp), and died at Louvain on 15 January 1623. He pursued his studies at the University of Louvain (1567–71), graduating in philosophy, a discipline which, after entering the Society of Jesus (1572), he taught for six years at the College of Douai, where, in the year following his priestly ordination (1581), he also served as prefect of studies. In 1581–84 he studied theology in Rome at the Roman College under Suárez and St. Roberto Bellarmino. Returning to Belgium, he directed a Marian Congregation of students at Liège for one year (1584–85). In 1584 he assumed the chair of theology at the College of the Society in Louvain, immediately distinguishing himself by replacing, from his very first lectures, the commentary on the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas with that on the Liber Sententiarum of Pietro Lombardo—an innovation he had encountered in Rome and which, despite some opposition, was later adopted in the University as well, following his example. His exceptional gifts of clarity and concision won L. the affection of the students, who also admired in him a profound priestly and religious spirit, since he openly professed that the purpose of theology was not merely to make men learned and skilled in disputation, but wise and holy; without this, every study was vanity (De perfectionibus divinis, l. XII, cap. 18). In 1587 Michele Baio, together with Enrico van Kuyck and Giacomo Janson, animated by hostility toward the Order of the Jesuits, stirred up a fierce struggle against L. among several professors of the University, attacking his doctrine on Grace as though it were Pelagian, as well as certain opinions of his that had been inaccurately expressed concerning the inspiration of the Bible.
The painful controversy, conducted by his adversaries with animosity, was overcome by L. with edifying virtue and Christian charity. Finally, when the matter had been silenced to his honor by Sisto V through the nuncio Frangipani (1588), his name became famous throughout Europe, especially when, in 1605, his work De iustitia et iure ceterisque virtutibus cardinalibus libri IV was published at Louvain by the printers of Masius. A true masterpiece, it placed him among the most authoritative moralists. This work, admired by St. Francesco di Sales, Federico Borromeo, and the most celebrated doctors of the age, went through 20 editions in the course of approximately a century (12 while the author was still alive). From 1600 L. abandoned teaching in order to devote himself more freely to the composition of his works. He was provincial consultor and was sent twice to Rome as procurator, taking part in the Seventh General Congregation (1615–1616), which elected the superior general Muzio Vitelleschi. L.’s literary activity was moral-ascetic, apologetic, and theological. In 1613 he published a short work on the religious vocation, and in 1615 another justifying the situation of persons who took the vow of chastity while remaining in the world. The Hygiasticon seu vera ratio valetudinis bonae una cum sensuum, indicii et memoriae integritate ad extremam senectutem conservandae (Antwerp 1613) enjoyed extraordinary success. The opusculum went through 33 editions, in Latin, English, Spanish, Flemish, French, Italian, Polish, and other languages. The booklet Quae fides et quae religio sit capessenda consultatio (there 1609), only 142 pages long, in which he refuted religious indifferentism and the Protestant doctrine of the equality of religions with clarity, fair objectivity, and delicate charity, and demonstrated the truth of the Catholic religion, succeeded in converting many heretics, especially Calvinists, among them Giovanni di Nassau-Siegen. His other works as well—De Providentia Numini et immortalitate animorum (there 1613), translated even into Chinese; De Antichristo (1611); and Defensio potestatis Summi Pontificis (1613), judged by Paolo V to be the finest defense written in favor of the papacy against the attacks of Giacomo I of England—demonstrate L.’s concern to place scholarship at the service of the Church’s most concrete and current interests. In dogmatic theology, L. distinguished himself with the treatise De Gratia efficaci, decretis divinis libertate arbitrii et praescientia Dei condicionata (there 1610), with the appended question of predestination post prae-
behind a curtain of the Curia of the PP. Jesuits
LESSIO, LEONARDO — Portrait executed by F. van Abohoven (1613). The original is in the College of the Society of Jesus at Louvain.
A work deserving mention, which, having been published in the climate still heated by the controversies de Auxiliis (v.), became for its author a source of great moral suffering. For these reasons, L., tired and disgusted with having always to argue, gave up composing the commentary on St. Thomas, to which he had wished to devote himself, and during the last years of his life devoted himself entirely to ascetical studies, publishing true literary gems such as the De summo bono et aeterna beatitudine hominis (there 1616) and the De perfectionibus moribusque divinis (there 1620), which placed L. among the greatest spiritual writers of every century. After his death various booklets were published posthumously, including Quinquaginta Nomina Dei (1640) and the Horologium Passionis Dominicae (1640). L. lived constantly in the practice of union with God, exercising the most heroic virtues, and died in the odor of sanctity. The fame of the miraculous cures attributed to his intercession and occurring through contact with his relics gave rise to numerous pilgrimages to his tomb throughout the seventeenth century, also from France and Germany; but attempts to initiate the ordinary processes for his beatification failed because of the opposition of certain Jansenist bishops. During the suppression of the Society (1773–1814) and the wars of the French Revolution, L.’s remains were lost; but, following the trail of documents preserved by the Bollandists, they were successfully rediscovered in 1891 and placed in the church of the Jesuits’ theological college at Louvain. The cause of his beatification was resumed.