Dionysius of Werl

Dionysius von Werl (* around 1640 in Werl , Westphalia , † March 4, 1709 in Hildesheim ) was a Capuchin and controversial writer .

Life

Dionysius was a student in Münster in 1654, entered the Capuchin Province of Cologne on October 11, 1658 and studied philosophy and theology from 1662 to 1669 in the order of Paderborn. After pastoral work in Münster in 1669 and Borken in 1670, he stayed from 1674 to 1680 as a theologian and lecturer in the Capuchin branch at the court of the converted Duke Johann Friedrich von Braunschweig-Lüneburg in Hanover, where he became friends with Leibniz . Afterwards, apart from a stay in the Paderborn monastery, he was in Hildesheim without interruption from 1693 to 1697, where he took an active part in the efforts of Leibniz, Molanus , Spinola and Bossuet to unite the separate churches. In his main work Via Pacis inter homines per Germaniam in Fide dissidentes sive Tractatus irenicus (published in Hildesheim 1686), he mainly urges the Irish to clear up mutual misunderstandings, mutual sincerity and prayer. In his later work Catholischer Ehren-Retter (published in Hildesheim in 1698) the tone is sharper.

Fonts (selection)

• Philanton. Hanover 1676
• Philanton vindicatus. Hanover 1678 (against Prof. Hermann Conring from Helmstedt on the veneration of saints)
• Pseudo-Poenitens correctus sive Doctrina Ecclesiae Cath. de vera Poenitentia. Cologne 1692
• The only mediator between God and people Christ Jesus. Hildesheim 1705
• Measurement reporter. Hildesheim 1705.

literature

• Bernardus a Bononia, Bibl. Scriptorum Ord. Min. S. Francisci Capuccinorum, Venice 1747
• Hurter IV, Col. 706 f.
• Gisbert Menge: P. Dionysius von Werl, an Irishman from the Capuchin order. In: Franciscan Studies. Volume 2, 1915, pp. 314-317
• Gisbert Menge: Attempts to reunify Germany in faith. Contributions to church history. Missionsdruckerei, Steyl 1920, pp. 191–194
• Franz Xaver Kiefl: Leibniz and the religious reunification of Germany. His negotiations with Bossuet and the European royal courts about the reconciliation of the Christian denominations. 2nd edition, publishing house vorm. GJ Manz, Regensburg 1925
• Arsenius Theobald Jacobs: Die Rheinischen Kapuziner 1611-1725. A contribution to the history of Catholic reform. Munster i. W. 1933, pp. 68-70; also: Philosophical dissertation, Cologne, 1931
• Bonaventure von Mehr: The Preaching System in the Capuchin Province of Cologne and Rhenish in the 17th and 18th centuries. Instituto Storico Dei Fr. Min. Capuccini, Rome 1945