LUDOLFO di SASSONIA. - Ascetic and exegete, born c. 1295, died at Strasburgo on 10 Apr. 1377. At the age of eighteen he entered the Dominicans and remained there for about twenty-six years, distinguishing himself by learning and piety. In 1340 he joined the Carthusians at Strasburgo, where he remained until 1343; he was then appointed prior of Coblenza, but resigned in 1348, withdrawing to Magonza and then again to Strasburgo, where he died with a reputation for sanctity.
His Vita Domini nostri Iesu Christi ex quatuor Evangelii is very well known, a celebrated work that has immortalized the name of L. The first edition was published at Strasburgo in 1474; it was followed by more than 420 others; among the most recent are those of Bologna (1867, 2 vols.), Parma (1871-1873, 2 vols.), and Parigi (1870-99, 7 vols.). Even today this work is regarded as one of the best commentaries on the Gospels, coordinated and fused into a single narrative. Even before the invention of printing it was widespread everywhere and provided priests and the faithful with a precious and abundant mine of instruction and spiritual meditations based on Scripture and the Fathers. Also published several times have been: the collection of prayers with which L. concludes the chapters of his work, constituting a substantial summary of the doctrine and facts contained in each of them (Venezia 1557); and the Expositio in Psalterium Davidis (Parigi 1491), drawn from the commentaries of St. Girolamo, St. Agostino, Cassiodoro, and Pietro Lombardo.