STOSS, ANDREAS. - Carmelite theologian, b. in Nuremberg c. 1477, d. in Bamberg on 10 Oct. 1540. Son of the celebrated engraver Veit Stoss, he entered the habit in the convent of his native city. Appointed reader in theology (1510) and doctor in canon law by the University of Ingolstadt (1517), he was prior of Bado in 1513, vicar provincial of Hungary in 1514, prior of Nuremberg in 1520, and provincial of Upper Germany from 1529 until his death.
His activity in defense of the Catholic faith began in Nuremberg, from where he was expelled after the Senate had officially embraced Protestantism in 1525. Subsequently, he worked strenuously in the diocese of Bamberg, where he succeeded in overcoming the grave dangers threatening the faith, asserting himself amid the initial uncertainties of Bishop Weigand of Redwitz and becoming his most effective aid against the reformers. Delegated by the bishop, he attended the Council of Trent, convoked in Mantua in 1537, which was meanwhile suspended. His prudence and firmness were also exercised in salvaging what remained of the Order’s convents.