SPEE von LANGENFELD, FRIEDRICH. - Jesuit, poet and ascetic spiritual writer, b. 25 February 1591 at Kaiserwerth, d. at Trier on 7 August 1635.
He entered the Order on 22 September 1610, and was ordained a priest in 1622; he first devoted himself to the ministry with great success, especially during the Thirty Years' War, converting several regions to Catholicism, and then to the teaching of philosophy and moral theology at Cologne, Paderborn and Trier. He died while caring for the plague-stricken. Spee was a poet of most delicate sentiments and of profound spirituality.
His masterpiece is the Trutznachtigal (Cologne 1649), which had many reprints, one also edited by Cl. Brentano (1817); and the Guldene Tugendbuch, which Leibniz defined as "one of the most solid and moving books of devotion." Of great value too was his work Cautio criminalis (Rinteln 1631), condemning the trials against witches.
Bibliography10 worksSommervogel, VII, coll. 1424-31; H. Cardauns, F. S., Frankfurt 1884; E. Wolff, Das deutsche Kirchenlied des 16 u. 17. Jahrb. (Deutsche Natio
BIBL.: Sommervogel, VII, coll. 1424-31; H. Cardauns, F. S., Frankfurt 1884; E. Wolff, Das deutsche Kirchenlied des 16 u. 17. Jahrb. (Deutsche Nationalliter., 31), Berlin, 1890, pp. 229-270; T. Ebner, S. und die Hexenprozesse seiner Zeit, Munich 1898; H. Schachter, Naturbilder in S. Dichtungen, Berlin 1906; A. Jungbluth, Beiträge zur Dichtersprache S., Bonn 1906; B. Duhr, Gesch. der Jesuiten, II. II, Freiburg i. Br., 1913, 745-66; E. Schröder, Die Cautio criminalis, in Literat. Jahrb. der Gürresges., 3 (1928), pp. 134-50; I. Ruttenauer, Ein Verhünder der Hoffnung, der Seelsorger F. v. S., in Geist u. Leben, 22 (1949), pp. 248-57; F. v. S., Ein lebendiger Murtyrer, Freiburg in Br. 1951.
Lanz, Arnaldo Maria. “Spee Von Langenfeld, friedrich.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, col. 1105. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953. https://azioneromana.com/article/spee-von-langenfeld-friedrich.
MLA
Lanz, Arnaldo Maria. “Spee Von Langenfeld, friedrich.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953, col. 1105. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/spee-von-langenfeld-friedrich.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec11_spee_von_langenfeld_friedrich,
author = {Lanz, Arnaldo Maria},
title = {Spee Von Langenfeld, friedrich},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {XI},
pages = {1105},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1953},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/spee-von-langenfeld-friedrich}
}
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