Henry of Heisterbach, Bl.

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HENRY OF HEISTERBACH, BL.

Cistercian abbot; b. c. 1180; d. c. 1244. Henry, born of a noble family and educated in Paris, became a canon of the church of St. Cassius in Bonn; about 1200 he entered the Cistercian Abbey of heisterbach where he later became prior. In 1208 he was unanimously elected abbot. His reign marked the high point in the history of Heisterbach; under him the abbey church was completed (1237), the abbey's land holdings were enlarged, and the daughter house at Marienstatt was founded. He encouraged the important literary activity of caesarius of heisterbach. Henry served the Church and the secular governments as a counselor, ambassador, and preacher of a crusade.

Feast: Nov. 11.

Bibliography: caesarius of heisterbach, Dialogus miraculorum, ed. j. strange, 2 v. (Cologne 1851), bk. 1, ch. 13; bk. 7, ch. 39, and passim; ed. a. hilka as Die Wundergeschichten des Cäsarius von Heisterbach, 3 v. (Bonn 193337), and tr. h. vone. scott and c. s. bland as The Dialogue on Miracles, 2 v. (London 1929). g. wellstein, "Heinrich I, dritter Abt von Heisterbach," Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige 32 (1911) 405418. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum: Die Heiligen und Seligen des Benediktinerorderns und seiner Zweige, 4 v. (Metten 193338) 3:290.

[j. r. sommerfeldt]