“For three centuries, Canisius was regarded as the master of the Catholics of Germany and in the vernacular ‘knowing Canisius’ and ‘keeping the Christian truth’ were synonymous propositions.” – Pope Leo XIII

Among the Doctors of the Church, one of the leat known in spite of his importance for Catholic life today, is Peter Canisius, one of the first Jesuits.

Canisius lived in an age of upheaval, confusion, wide distrust of the hierarchy, and warfare between christian princes. Through his learning, zeal, holiness, and zeal, he more than anyone else preserved the Catholic faith in German and Switzerland. His voluminous writings, though nearly unknown today, would take up numerous shelves, his catechisms have been praised by Popes for centuries. This is the story, of an ordinary man called upon by God to work among the great men of his age, such as Philip Neri, Ignatius of Loyola, Charles Borromeo, Pius V, Francis de Sales, and countless others. The power of Reany’s biography is that it is simple to read while at the same time interesting and enlightening.

About the Mediatrix Press Edition: This is not a facsimile reprint, it has been freshly OCRed from the 1931 original, and dutifully edited and corrected to the original. Mediatrix Press is devoted to bringing works back in print for the modern audience which have fallen by the wayside.