Angelus Silesius: Difference between revisions

Angelus Silesius
Born	Johann Scheffler Baptised (1624-12-25)December 25, 1624 Wrocław
Died	July 9, 1677(1677-07-09) (aged 52) Wrocław
Nationality	Silesian
Other names	Silas
Occupation(s)	Physician, priest, mystic and religious poet
Notable work	Heilige Seelenlust, oder geistliche Hirtenlieder der in ihren Jesum verliebten Psyche Der Cherubinischer Wandersmann Ecclesiologia

Angelus Silesius (bapt. 25 December 1624 – 9 July 1677, born: Johann Scheffler) was a German Catholic priest and physician, known for being a mystic and religious poet. Born and raised as a Lutheran, he adopted the name Angelus (Latin for "messanger") and the surname Silesius (from the Latin for "Silesian") upon converting to Catholicism in 1653. He would take holy orders and be ordained a priest in 1661, when he retired to a monastery where he remained for the rest of his life.

An enthusiastic convert and priest, Silesius worked diligently in efforts to convince German Protestants in Silesia to return to the Roman Catholic church after the Reformation. To this end, he composed fifty-five tracts and pamphlets condemning Protestantism, several of which were published in two folio volumes entitled Eccleciologia (trans. "The Words of the Church"). However, history remembers him chiefly for his religious poetry and in particular for two poetical works both published in 1657: Heilige Seelenlust (literally, "The Soul's Holy Desires"), a collection of religious hymn texts that are used as lyrics for well known Catholic and Protestant hymns; and for Der Cherubinische Wandersmann ("The Cherubinic Pilgrim"), a collection of 1,600 alexandrine couplets. His poetry is noted for exploring themes of mysticism, quietism, and pantheism within the Christian context.

Life

Silesius was born in Breslau, Silesia as son of Polish noble and German mother [1]. His given name was Johann Scheffler, but he is generally known by the pseudonym Angelus Silesius (meaning Silesian messenger), under which he published his poems and which marks the country of his birth, Silesia. His father moved from Kraków in 1618 and became a citizen of Breslau. Johann was brought up a Lutheran and educated as scientist and physician. He was at first physician to Silvius Nimrod, Duke of Württemberg-Oels, where he came into contact with Abraham von Franckenberg, who was later to influence him greatly and whose library he would inherit on Franckenberg's death in 1652. With the imperial Habsburg rulers pushing for re-Catholicisation, and finding his mysticism unwelcomed in the Lutheran establishment, Silesius converted to the Catholic Church in 1653. Two years later Silesius received from Emperor Ferdinand III the status of imperial-royal (kaiserlich-königlich) court physician. In 1661 he took orders as a priest, and became coadjutor to the Prince-bishop of Breslau. He died at St. Matthias monastery in Breslau. He was known to use his unexplained considerable inheritance for the welfare of orphans. He is said to have been known by the nickname "Silas" in his day and to have contributed to a considerable body of Lutheran and Catholic hymns.

Works

• 1657: Heilige Seelenlust, oder geistliche Hirtenlieder der in ihren Jesum verliebten Psyche (trans. "The Soul's Holy Desires, or the Spiritual Songs of the Shepherd in your Christ's beloved Spirit")
• 1657: Der Cherbinische Wandersmann (trans. "The Cherubinic Pilgrim") (revised 1674)

Monument in Wrocław

In 1657 Silesius published under the title Heilige Seelenlust, oder geistliche Hirtenlieder der in ihren Jesum verliebten Psyche (1657), a collection of 205 hymns, the most beautiful of which, such as, Liebe, die du mich zum Bilde deiner Gottheit hast gemacht and Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held, have been adopted in the German Protestant hymnal. More remarkable, however, is his Geistreiche Sinn- und Schluss-reime (1657), afterwards called Cherubinischer Wandersmann ("The Cherubic Pilgrim") (1674). This is a collection of Reimsprüche or rhymed distichs embodying a strange mystical panentheism drawn mainly from the writings of Jakob Böhme and his followers. Silesius also delighted specially in the subtle paradoxes of mysticism. The essence of God, for instance, he held to be love; God, he said, can love nothing inferior to himself; but he cannot be an object of love to himself without going out, so to speak, of himself, without manifesting his infinity in a finite form; in other words, by becoming man. God and man are therefore essentially one.

The Catholic Encyclopedia defends Silesius from the charge of panentheism. His prose writings are orthodox; "The Cherubic Pilgrim" was published with the ecclesiastical Imprimatur, and, in his preface, the author himself explains his "paradoxes" in an orthodox sense, and repudiates any future pantheistic interpretation.

Silesius also wrote prose, notably a series of tracts against Protestantism, published under the title Ecclesiologia.

Quotations

"Die Rose ist ohne warum; sie blühet, weil sie blühet..."

["The Rose is without 'why'; she blooms, because she blooms..."] This was held by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges to be a summary of Poetry.

I will end with a great line by the poet who, in the seventeenth century, took the strangely real and poetic name of Angelus Silesius. It is the summary of all I have said tonight -- except that I have said it by means of reasoning and simulated reasoning. I will say it first in Spanish and then in German:

La rosa sin porqué florece porque florece.

Die Rose ist ohne warum; sie blühet weil sie blühet.

Seven Nights by Jorge Luis Borges. Originally published in Spanish as Siete Noches.

In the Martin Scorsese remake of the movie Cape Fear, Robert De Niro's character Max Cady quotes a verse of Silesius, notably "I am like God and God like me. I am as large as God. He is as small as I. He cannot stand above me nor I beneath him."

[Ich bin wie Gott, und Gott wie ich. Ich bin so groß wie Gott, er ist so klein wie ich. Er kann nicht über mir, und ich nicht unter ihm stehen.]

Bibliographical references

A complete edition of Scheffler's works (Sämtliche poetische Werke) was published by D. A. Rosenthal, 2 vols. (Regensburg, 1862). Both the Cherubinischer Wandersmann and Heilige Seelenlust have been republished by G. Ellinger (1895 and 1901); a selection from the former work by O. E. Hartleben (1896). For further notices of Silesius' life and work, see Hoffmann von Fallersleben in Weimarisches Jahrbuch I. (Hanover, 1854); A. Kahlert, Angelus Silesius (1853); C. Seltmann, Angelus Silesius und seine Mystik (1896), and a biography by H. Mahn (Dresden, 1896). His poetic works appeared, Sämtliche poetishe Werke (3 Vols.), 1949–1954, under the editorship of H. L. Held.

See also

• Physician writer

External links

• Two Silesius' texts in English translation