PETER CANISIUS, Saint, Doctor of the Church. — Born in Nijmegen (Netherlands) on 8 May 1521, died in Freiburg on 21 December 1597. Son of the burgomaster Jakob Kanis, Peter was sent at the age of 15 to Cologne to study law. Having obtained the degree of bachelor of arts and doctor of philosophy (1540), he turned to theology and in 1543 entered the Society of Jesus as the first German to do so, after having made the Spiritual Exercises under the guidance of Bl. Peter Faber in Mainz. He was ordained priest in 1546. Meanwhile, he had published the writings of St. Cyril of Alexandria (1546), followed by those of St. Leo the Great (1547).
From 1547 to 1580, Canisius held important offices, missions, and legations that were fruitful for the strengthening of the Catholic Church, which was under attack from the Protestant Reformation. He attended the Council of Trent in 1547 as theologian to the bishop of Augsburg, remaining there until its suspension and transfer to Bologna, after which he went to Rome, where St. Ignatius gave him his final formation in the spirit.
He went to Messina for the founding of the university there (1549) and was recalled to Rome by the wish of Paul III, who, acceding to the desire of Duke William IV of Bavaria, had decided that the Jesuits should take up the teaching of theology at the University of Ingolstadt. Before departing, Canisius made his solemn religious profession in Rome on 4 September 1549. Having obtained a doctorate in theology at the University of Bologna, he arrived in Germany and found himself involved in the most pressing issues of the time, carrying out for several years a multifaceted activity as preacher, catechist, writer, diplomat, mediator, and papal delegate. On 26 November 1549, he began his lectures on the Sacraments. On 18 October 1550, he was unanimously elected rector of the University of Ingolstadt. In 1552, he moved to Vienna. The conditions of the Church in Austria were even more deplorable than in Bavaria. Discipline had lapsed among the clergy and in the monasteries, and the nobility imposed apostate pastors on the people. Soon, Canisius, with his companions, brought about a profound change in this state of affairs.
Meanwhile, invited to contribute to the founding of the German College, which St. Ignatius had conceived in Rome, Canisius sent the first 22 young men there in April 1544. In 1556, the Saint went to Bohemia and founded a Jesuit college and a house for poor students in Prague. Having become provincial of Upper Germany in the following years, he founded colleges in Munich (1559), Innsbruck (1562), Dillingen (1563), and Würzburg (1567). No less tireless was his ministry of the word. During the four years he spent in Vienna, he taught not only from the university chair but also from the pulpit. More than 260 parishes in Lower Austria lacked a pastor; the Saint sought to remedy this, and during Lent 1553, he preached from church to church, even on the ice. In 1558, he was in Augsburg, where he reaped immense fruit in conversions to the faith and many vocations among the young, receiving at that time a laudatory brief from Pius IV. In 1563, he returned there and, over 21 months, delivered about 240 sermons.
On 20 June 1571, after 13 years, he was relieved of his duties as provincial and assigned to Innsbruck as court preacher. More than 100 manuscript sermons that he delivered there until 1573 have been preserved. Canisius’s apostolate as a preacher was considerable; he traveled through Bavaria, Franconia, Alsace, Romania, Westphalia, Bohemia, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy, delivering about 2,000 sermons. Twice he presented himself to Charles V to prevent Archbishop Hermann of Wied of Cologne from leading the faithful into Protestantism. In 1556, he was among the theologians summoned by Emperor Ferdinand to the Diet of Regensburg to settle religious disputes; in 1557 and 1559, he was at the diets of Worms and Augsburg.
When the Council of Trent reopened in 1562, he was recalled by Cardinal Hosius; in 1566, he went to Augsburg with Cardinal Commendone, legate of Pius V, and in 1576, by order of Gregory XIII, he accompanied Cardinal Morone to the Diet of Regensburg. Much was owed to him for the favorable outcome of those negotiations. Pius V chose him as an advisor on important matters and decided to create him a cardinal, but the Saint’s death prevented this. Canisius spent his final years in Switzerland (1580–97) and founded the College of St. Michael in Fribourg. Struck in 1591 by a severe attack that deprived him of the free use of his limbs, he lived increasingly withdrawn.
Pius XI canonized him on 21 May 1925 and also declared him a Doctor of the Universal Church. His feast is celebrated on 27 April. Of the 38 works he wrote, the most widespread is the Catechism (1555) in Latin, in three versions: *Summa doctrinae christianae* (1555) for educated persons, in 211 question-and-answer sections (later expanded to 222), expounding all Catholic doctrine with precision and clarity, emphasizing the truths and customs of Catholicism most opposed and contested. In 1566, Emperor Ferdinand imposed it on all his dominions, and Philip II did the same for the Netherlands. It was soon translated into all the languages of the Catholic world and adopted in many dioceses; *Catechismus parvus catholicorum* (1558) for students, with 122 question-and-answer sections; *Catechismus minor* (1556) for children and the common people, in 59 question-and-answer sections. By the time of the author’s death, there were more than 200 editions, and translations had been made into 12 languages.
In 1571, the first volume of his refutations of the Magdeburg Centuries appeared: *Commentaria de corruptelis verbi Dei* I. *De Johannis Baptistae* (Dillingen 1571); then volume II, *De Maria virgine incomparabili* (Ingolstadt 1577), in five books, which won the praise of contemporary scholars. Among his minor works are to be noted: *Notae in evangelicas lectiones*, 2 vols., 1591–93, his prayer book for students, and the first printed edition of the Litany of Loreto (Dillingen 1558).
Among the foundations and works established in his honor, Innsbruck (v.) and the Canisiuswerk, an Austrian society for the cultural formation of priests and vocations, founded in 1918 by Joseph Moser, with its headquarters in Vienna and its own journal *Volkseele*.
He indeed set out for Colombia in 1610, completed his studies at Santa Fe de Bogotá, and was ordained a priest in Cartagena on March 19, 1616. The city was the hub of the slave trade, and every year thousands of blacks, forcibly captured in the Congo and Angola, disembarked there as a wretched human flock, awaiting sale to American colonists for work in mines or plantations. To these people he dedicated himself with a special vow, laboring for forty grueling years. He attended to their arrival, gathered them into sheds, assisted them in their harsh labor, visited them in hospitals, provided them with food, clothing, and money, and above all instructed them in the faith until they were baptized. According to his own account, he baptized more than 300,000 blacks. The rest of his time he devoted to the good of the citizens, earning the title “Apostle of Cartagena.” His life was so extraordinary that it was commonly regarded as a miracle, sustained by extraordinary prayer and penance, which brought about the most consoling conversions even among Muslims and heretics with whom he came into contact. Beatified in 1851, he was canonized by Leo XIII in 1888 and declared patron of African missions in 1896. His feast is celebrated on September 9.
A congregation of indigenous Brothers of St. Peter Claver, in French Congo, and the Sodality of St. Peter Claver, founded by Countess Maria Teresa Ledochowska in support of African missionaries, are named in his honor.