Peter Canisius

Joe, let's go back to, to Jerome and how the other saints really appreciated him.

St. Peter Canisius, SJ, uh, a great hero of the Counter-Reformation, Doctor of the Church, was really the originator of the genre of catechisms.

Two stories about s- uh, Peter Canisius real quick.

Number one, you know what he said about the sin of Sodom? He said the sin of Sodom was such a f- an offense against the orders of nature and grace that it cannot be sufficiently hated in this life or the next.

So if you want proof that people haven't read Peter Canisius, just look for Catholic colleges that have rainbow flags and a statue-

Ooh

... of Peter Canisius.

They cancel each other out, so.

Under him, as will be seen, Ingolstadt, though it never became a purely Jesuit university like Innsbruck and Dillingen, was to a great extent given up to the order.

Into the hereditary dominions of the House of Austria the Jesuits effected an entry in 1552, when King Ferdinand invited to Vienna two Jesuits from Ingolstadt, Peter Canisius, Canes, rector of the university, and his companion Nicholas Gandamus.

Canisius had already done good service at Cologne during the struggle against the archbishop Hermann of Wied, in which the church ultimately proved victorious, 1547, and soon obtained considerable influence over King Ferdinand.

From Vienna, where he held an important position both in the university and in the community at large, he undertook a series of special missions in Upper and Lower Austria, and supplied the Collegium Germanicum at Rome with promising novices.

Again, just to give people a sense of what's going on, of course, when we think of that particular period of time, often we think of what's happening in Spain with other doctors of the church, like John of Avila, Teresa of Avila, also the work of the great Ignatius of Loyola.

And Peter Canisius and others.

This was a time of giants, and it became clear that...

Robert wanted to become a priest.

Paul recalled something that Stanislaus had said to him only the day before, when he had threatened plainly to run away.

And they had heard him say another time that at Augsburg was Peter Canisius, the provincial of the German Jesuits.

Of course they were going to follow him and bring him back.

But night had come on before their inquiries and deliberations were finished.

He was ready.

Then in God's name go, said Father Antony, and may God be with you in all.

I'll give you letters to Father Canisius, the provincial in Augsburg, and to Father Francis Borgia, the general who is in Rome.

Then Stanislaus was happy.

They always have at least one sermon on Mary, and St. Alphonsus always thought this sermon on Mary's mercy was the most effective for calling people to confession and back to the church.

It's been said that what Saints Peter Canisius and Lawrence of Brindisi did for Germany, and what Saint Francis de Sales did for Switzerland, that's what Saint Alphonsus Liguori did for Italy.

But Italy never really had the Lutherans like Germany or the Calvinists like Switzerland.

What Italy did have was the heresy known as Jansenism.