Peter Canisius

Lore & Background

Canisius was born in 1521 in Nijmegen, in the Duchy of Guelders, the son of the wealthy burgermeister Jacob Kanis; his mother died soon after his birth. He took a master's degree at the University of Cologne in 1540, aged 19.

There he met Peter Faber, a founder of the Society of Jesus, and in 1543 he became the first Dutchman to join the order. Ordained in 1546, he attended sessions of the Council of Trent in 1547. He turned down the post of Bishop of Vienna in 1554, though he ran the diocese for a year, and argued for the Catholic side at the Colloquy of Worms in 1557.

Reader's Guide

From 1559 to 1568 he was the chief preacher at the Cathedral of Augsburg, and in 1562 he founded what became the University of Innsbruck. He also influenced Emperor Ferdinand I. His final twenty years were spent in Fribourg, where he founded the Collège Saint-Michel. He favoured persuasion over insult, refusing harsh attacks on John Calvin and Philip Melanchthon. A strong promoter of Marian devotion, he wrote a 1577 study of the Virgin Mary commissioned by Pope Pius V. He died in Fribourg on 21 December 1597.

Did You Know?

• He added the words Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners to the Hail Mary prayer.
• His Summa Doctrinae Christianae (1554) was translated into Scots by Adam King in 1588.
• A stroke in 1591 left him partly paralysed, yet he kept writing with a secretary.