Didjaredit?
1. Why did Henry’s dad take him to the Dominican convent at
the age of 13?
2. Henry was born in what country?
3. What event changed his life when he was 18?
4. Henry believed he had been a terrible sinner. Therefor, what
did he do during the next 16 years of his life?
5. Why did people think Henry was eccentric?
6. What happened to his sister?
7. Who kept track of his writings?
8. To whom was Henry Suso speaking in the reading for today?
EX. CREDIT: What is the name of Henry’s best known book?
BIO
• Henry Suso, O.P. (also
called Amandus, a name adopted in
his writings, and Heinrich
Seuse in German), was a GermanSwiss Dominican friar, who was a
noted spiritual writer, poet and mystic.
• Suso was born Heinrich von Berg but
out of humility and devotion to his
mother, took her maiden name –
Suso.
• His was a ruling class family who
excelled in the art of warfare.
• He died on January 25, 1366.
• He was beatified by the Catholic
Church in 1831.
His Conversion
•
•
•
•
In the prologue to his Life, Suso recounts how,
after about five years in the monastery (in other
words, when he was about 18 years old), he
experienced a conversion to a deeper form
of religious life through the intervention of Divine
Wisdom.
He was tormented by desires which he learned
to place into God. He was filled with a certain
self-loathing and deep scrupulosity.
After this powerful vision, he made himself "the
Servant of Eternal Wisdom", which he identified
with the divine essence and, in more specific
terms, with divine Eternal Wisdom in Christ.
From this point forward in his account of his
spiritual life, a burning love for Eternal Wisdom
dominated his thoughts and controlled his
actions; his spiritual journey culminated in
a mystical marriage to Christ in the feminine
form of the Eternal Wisdom.
• Suso was then sent on for further studies in philosophy and
theology, probably first at the Dominican monastery in
Strasbourg, perhaps between 1319 and 1321, and then from
1324 to 1327 he took a supplementary course in theology in
the Dominican Studium Generale in Cologne, where he
would have come into contact with Meister Eckhart, and
probably also Johannes Tauler, both celebrated mystics.
• Suso and Johannes Tauler were students of Meister Eckhart.
The three form the nucleus of the Rhineland school of
mysticism
• Returning to his home priory at Constance in about 1327,
Suso was appointed to teach there. His teaching, however,
aroused criticism - most likely because of his connection
with Eckhart who had been condemned for heresy. Suso
was forced to resign this position.
• He served as the prior of his convent for a number of years
after this.
Johannes Tauler
His Disciples
• It is also known that he had various devoted disciples, a group
including both men and women, especially among the Friends of God
society.
• The Friends of God society was a medieval lay mystical group within
the Catholic Church and a center of German mysticism. It was
founded between 1339 and 1343.
• Suso was reported to have established among the Friends of God, a
society which he called the Brotherhood of the Eternal Wisdom.
• His influence was especially strong in many religious communities of
women, particularly in the Dominican Monastery of St. Katharinental
in the Argau, a famous nursery of mysticism in the 13th and 14th
centuries.
• In the mid-1330s, during his visits to various communities of
Dominican nuns and Beguines, Suso became acquainted with Elsbeth
Stagel, prioress of the monastery of Dominican nuns in Töss. The two
became close friends. She translated some of his Latin writings into
German, collected and preserved most of his extant letters, and at
some point began gathering the materials that Suso eventually put
together into his Life of the Servant.
His Writings
• Suso wrote many works as a poet and troubadour of Divine
Wisdom.
• His first work was the “Little Book of Truth” in defense of
Meister Eckhart.
• He was very widely read in the later Middle Ages, his most
famous work being the Little Book of Eternal Wisdom.
• The Clock of Wisdom was even more popular: written in
hundreds of various medieval translations.
• Some of his books are written as dialogue, a favorite literary
form in the 14th century. The dialogue is between himself
('the disciple') and God ('Eternal Truth', which, like 'Eternal
Wisdom', is a feminine noun).
• He wrote the story of his inner life in the VITA (or Life of a
Servant.)
• Several of his letters are available to us still today.
His Spirituality
• Suso called himself the “servant of Eternal Wisdom.”
• Suffering scruples because he believed himself to be a wicked sinner, he put
his body through many tortures. Thus his health began to decline. The
Blessed Mother appeared to him and told him to cast his instruments of
self-torture into the river. He no longer would suffer physical tortures, but
mental or spiritual ones.
• He endured long stretches of spiritual darkness interrupted only by
occasional bursts of brightness.
• Master Eckhart recognized the torturous scruples of this young man and
after working with him patiently over time, Suso wrote, “He delivered me
from the hell in which I so long had dwelt.”
• Suso then was able to use the energies with which he once abused himself
to go out and serve others more faithfully.
• He helped many young women give their lives to Christ in the religious life.
Because of this (and because of his association with Eckhart) he endured
persecution, slander and even several attempts on his life.
• He had a deep love for Mary. Using the name Amandus, and drawing from
the chivalric lessons taught to him in his childhood, he wrote many love
poems to her.
GERMAN MYSTICISM
• German mysticism, sometimes called Dominican mysticism or Rhineland
mysticism, was a late medieval Christian mystical movement that was
especially prominent within the Dominican order and in Germany. Although
its origins can be traced back to Hildegard of Bingen, it is mostly represented
by Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, and Henry Suso. The Friends of God
society also was a large part of this movement.
• This movement often seems to stand in stark contrast with scholasticism and
German Theology, but the relationship between scholasticism and German
mysticism is debated. Viewed as a predecessor of the reformation, the
contrast becomes very apparent.
– For example, the use of an approachable vernacular stands in stark contrast to
the constrained Latin of the Scholastics
– German mysticism had an anti-clerical flavor among many of its followers.
– Thus, the increased focus on the laity stands in contrast to the more deeply
sacramental understanding of the Church, and these elements are both taken up
and transformed in the writings of Martin Luther.
– German mysticism can also be viewed as a practical application of Scholasticism.
Music
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrPKrym
EGko