NEUMAYR, FRANZ. – Jesuit, preacher, and spiritual writer, born in Munich on 17 January 1697, died in Augsburg on 1 May 1765. Professor of belles-lettres and director of the large Latin Congregation of Munich, from 1752 he was cathedral preacher in Augsburg, achieving extraordinary success, while employing his artistic talent in composing educational scenes and dramas of classical beauty, and his theological and ascetical profundity in the service of the faith against the Lutherans and for the edification and perfection of the faithful.
Of his numerous works (112), perhaps the most valuable for the vigor and topicality of their subject and form are the series of questions under the title Frag. ob («Ask:
Why?»), a series of pamphlets, printed in Augsburg, Munich, and Ingolstadt, collected in 2 vols. (Munich–Ingolstadt 1757–60), followed by another 4 vols. (there 1763–64), in which N. addresses the issues arising between Lutherans and Catholics; Micae evangelicae (Munich 1749); Katholisches Kirchenjahr (there 1760); Kern des Christentums (Augsburg 1762); Idea theologiae asceticae, published posthumously (there 1781) and translated into various languages (Italian version, Rome 1845).