Originally published at National Catholic Register
SAINTS & ART: Jesuit missionary St. Peter Canisius leveraged the printing press to counter Protestant errors and spread Catholic teaching.
St. Boniface, who lived on the bridge between the 7th and 8th centuries, is honored as the “Apostle of Germany” because of his work in Christianizing the pagans of those lands. St. Peter Canisius (1521-1597) is honored as the second Apostle of Germany because, thanks to his labors, large parts of the German-speaking world were recovered for Catholicism in the 16th century.
St. Peter Canisius’ life coincided with two major events in religious history: the Protestant Reformation and the founding of the Jesuits. Born in what today is the Netherlands, Canisius came into the world three-and-a-half years after Martin Luther launched his Reformation in Wittenberg. Protestant ideas were spreading fast: by that time, Zwingli was already pushing his version of the Reformation in Switzerland.
Peter went to Cologne to study law and theology, receiving a master’s degree in 1540. While in Cologne, he came into contact with influential Catholic figures. In 1543, he undertook the “Spiritual Exercises” under the direction of Peter Faber, one of the first generation to enter the Society of Jesus along with Ignatius Loyola and
