Laurentius Surius (translating to Lorenz Sauer;

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

, 1523 –

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, 23 May 1578) was a German

Carthusian The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians (), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its own rule, called th ...

hagiographer A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an wiktionary:adulatory, adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religi ...

and church historian.

Biography

Laurentius Surius was born in Lübeck in 1523, to a wealthy and respected family. His father was a goldsmith.Kwiatkowski, Iris, "Laurentius Surius", ''Internetportal Rheinische Geschichte''
/ref> It is not certain whether his parents were Catholics or Lutherans.

Peter Canisius Peter Canisius (; 8 May 1521 – 21 December 1597) was a Dutch Jesuit priest known for his strong support for the Catholic faith during the Protestant Reformation in Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland and the British Isles. The ...

suggests that he was born a Protestant. Surius' brother became a canon at Lübeck. In 1534 Surius began studies at the University of Frankfort-on-the-Oder. He may have left there due to an outbreak of the plague in 1536. He then went to Cologne, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in 1537, and a Master of Arts in 1539. Canisius was a fellow-student at Cologne. "His friendship with Canisius led to a fascination with Reform Catholicism, which combined his interests in the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, Humanism, and the Early Church." With his credentials, Surius could have had a university career, but he met Lanspergius, who induced him to enter the

monastery of Saint Barbara at Cologne, in 1542.Kirsch, Johann Peter. "Laurentius Surius." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 29 October 2021 He made his vows in 1541 and was ordained a priest two years later. Except for a brief stay at the charterhouse in Mainz, the greater part of his life after this was spent in his monastery, where he was a model of piety, of rigid observance of the rules of the order, and of earnest work as a scholar; for these reasons he was held in high esteem by St. Pius V. Surius died in Cologne on May 25, 1578.

Works

Surius wrote many works on church history and hagiography. He translated into Latin editions of German mystics of the later Middle Ages, such as Johannes Tauler,

Henry Suso Henry Suso, OP (also called Amandus, a name adopted in his writings, and Heinrich Seuse or Heinrich von Berg in German; 21 March 1295 – 25 January 1366) was a German Dominican friar and the most popular vernacular writer of the fourteenth c ...

, and

John of Ruysbroeck John of Ruusbroec or Jan van Ruusbroec (; 1293/1294 – 2 December 1381), sometimes modernized Ruysbroeck, was an Augustinian canon and one of the most important of the medieval mystics of the Low Countries. Some of his main literary works incl ...

.''The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature''
(James Strong and John McClintock,eds.) Harper and Brothers; NY; 1880. He presented the works in Latin in order to make them more accessible to a broader European readership. Around 1556, Surius took up controversialist literature, translating a treatise by the Dominican Johann Fabri, and one by Johannes Gropper on the body and blood of Christ; also the sermons of Michael Sidonius, the apologies of Friedrich Staphylus,Which may be found in Staphylus' posthumous Opera omnia (1613).
Google Books
'. and an oration by Martin Eisengrein. He completed the ''Institutiones'' of Florentius of Haarlem, prior of the Carthusians of

Louvain Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the sub-municipalities of ...

, and edited a new edition of the ''Homiliarium'' of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

. He wrote against Sleidanus his "Commentarius brevis rerum in orbe gestarum ab a. 1500 ad a. 1564" (Cologne, 1566), which was continued by others, including Michael ab Isselt. Turning to church history, in 1561, he published an edition of the works of

Pope Leo I Pope Leo I () ( 391 – 10 November 461), also known as Leo the Great (; ), was Bishop of Rome from 29 September 440 until his death on 10 November 461. He is the first of the three Popes listed in the ''Annuario Pontificio'' with the title "the ...

. He also published in 1567 a collection of the Acts of the councils: ''Concilia omnia tum generalia tum provincialia'' (4 vols., Cologne, 1567).Chalmers, Alexander. "Surius, Laurentius", ''General Biographical Dictionary'', 1812 He followed this in 1539 with a collection of sermons by

Alcuin Alcuin of York (; ; 735 – 19 May 804), also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin, was a scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Ecgbert of York, Archbishop Ecgbert at Yor ...

Hagiography

His major work is his collection of the lives of the saints, ''De probatis Sanctorum historiis ab Al. Lipomano olim conscriptis nunc primum a Laur. Surio emendatis et auctis'', the first edition of which appeared in six volumes at Cologne in 1570–75. He began a second edition which was finished after his death by his colleague in the monastery, Mosander, who added a seventh volume (Cologne, 1582). A third edition with an improved text appeared at Cologne in 1618; a new and revised edition was published (1875–80) at Turin in 13 volumes. Surius gave credit to some fabulous accounts. Derived works on lives of the saints have been published in various languages.

Notes

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Surius, Laurentius 1522 births 1578 deaths German Christian monks Carthusians 16th-century German historians Christian hagiographers German male non-fiction writers