SANDAEUS (VAN DER SANDT), MAXIMILIANUS. — Jesuit theologian, prolific ascetical and mystical writer, born in Amsterdam on 18 April 1578, died in Cologne on 21 June 1651. He studied the humanities at Groningen, then at Cologne, where at the Jesuits’ Collegium Tricoronatum he studied the liberal arts and philosophy (“master” on 3 March 1597), and finally law at Pont-à-Mousson. After his father’s death, he went to Italy, where he studied for brief periods at the Universities of Padua, Bologna, and Siena.
He was admitted to the Society of Jesus by Claudio Acquaviva (1597) in Rome, where he completed his novitiate and theological studies and was ordained a priest. He completed his third year of probation at Sezze under Fr. Bernardino Rossignoli. He then went to Würzburg (Germany), and from 1605 to 1631 taught philosophy and subsequently theology at the University; he directed the Episcopal Seminary of Würzburg. At Mainz and Cologne (from 1631) he was an active preacher.
His work as a professor and preacher did not slow his production as a controversialist, ascetical, and mystical writer. He could declare without exaggeration: Quoi annos sixi, tot libris scripsi. At his death, almost as many unpublished manuscripts were still found. His style, much admired by his contemporaries, is no longer appreciated today because it is overloaded with affected expressions, baroque witticisms, and artificial symbols and allegories. Theologia medica (Cologne 1635, 2nd ed. 1642) is a complete ascetical treatise; no less erudite is Theologia mystica (Mainz 1627), and especially Clavis Theologiae mysticae, from which Angelo Silesio drew extensively (v.). S.’s lasting merit is his defense of the mystical tradition, both in the Society and in the Church.
#### SANDALI: V. CALZARI.