Matthias Tanner (, ; 28 February 1630 – 8 February 1692) was a Czech

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

and

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Biography

Matthias Tanner was born on 28 February 1630 in

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1646. The greatest part of his life was spent at Prague, where he taught

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

, and

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, was made rector of the imperial university, and guided for six years the Bohemian province of his order. Tanner frequently retold the stories of prominent Jesuits, hoping to inspire other members of his order to imitate them. He was also known for his extreme reverence while celebrating

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

; his biographer describes the sight attracting crowds to the altar. He died in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

on 8 February 1692.

Works

Tanner wrote two Jesuit hagiographies: * ("A history of the lives and deaths of those Jesuits who suffered martyrdom for the faith") * (describing the history of Jesuit missionaries) His other works include: * ''Explanation of the Bloody Sacrifice of Christ in the Unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass'' (three editions) * a pamphlet proclaiming

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

's wrath against those who should dare to desecrate holy temples by their misbehavior * , a widely-read work on the validity of the Holy orders conferred on Andrew Frommens during the lifetime of his wife.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanner, Matthias 1630 births 1692 deaths 17th-century Jesuits People from Plzeň