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John Justus of LandsbergCart. (1489 – 10 August 1539) was a German Carthusianmonk and ascetical writer.
His family name wasGerecht, of whichJustus is merely a Latin translation. The appellation, however, by which he is generally known isLanspergius (latinization 'of Landsberg'), from his birthplace.
He was born atLandsberg am Lech inBavaria 1489, died at Cologne on 11 August 1539. After studyingphilosophy at theUniversity of Cologne, he joined theCarthusian Order at the age of twenty (1509), entering the Charterhouse of St. Barbara atCologne. He was namednovice-master there in 1520, and in 1530 becameprior of the Charterhouse of Vogelsang nearJülich, where according toHermann Joseph Hartzheim [de], he was also preacher (concionator) to the Court of William,Duke of Jülich, and confessor to the duke's mother. Because of bad health in 1534 he had to return to Cologne, where a few years later he was namedsub-prior and remained in that office until his death.
He was a monk of saintly life, employing all the time he could spare from his duties towards others in prayer, contemplation and writing onascetical andmystical subjects.
His literary works comprise paraphrases and homilies on theEpistles andGospels of the liturgical year, sermons for Sundays and festivals, meditations and discourses on the Life andPassion of Christ, and a variety of treatises, sermons, letters, meditations etc. on subjects pertaining to the spiritual life.
He was not apolemist. Among his productions the only ones of a controversial kind are two dissertations againstLutheran errors (from theCatholic point of view) and in defense of themonastic life. These two treatises are also all that he wrote in German, his other writings being in Latin.
The chief feature of his writings is ardent and tenderpiety. The love ofGod for man, calling for a corresponding love of man for God, is his usual theme treated in various ways. One thing particularly worthy of mark is the frequency with which he speaks of the Heart of Christ, and pressingly exhorts everyChristian to take theSacred Heart as an object of special love, veneration and imitation. Indeed, it may perhaps be said that no one before him had laid down and explained so clearly the principles upon which that devotion is grounded, nor had so developed their practical application. He was one of the last, and was perhaps the most precise in language, of those whose written teachings paved the way for SaintMargaret Mary Alacoque and her mission, and helped to prepare the Catholic mind for the great devotion of modern times. To him also Catholics owed the first Latin edition (Cologne, 1536) of the "Revelations of Saint Gertrude".
The best known of his treatises is theAlloquia Jesu Christi ad animam fidelem, which has been translated into Spanish, Italian, French and English.
A new and revised edition of all the works of Lanspergius in Latin has been issued by the Carthusian press ofNotre-Dame-des-Prés (Tournai, 1890), in five quarto volumes.
Lanspergius was a significant influence among his fellow Carthusian brothers. He was highly praised in the Chapter Sermons dedicated to the General of the Order (Cologne ed., 1536). His brothers referred to him as "viri certe integerrimi, devotissimique simul in activa et contempliva vita, ac sacris litteris exercitatissimi."[2] The editor of Lanspergius' complete works (1554), described him in the preface as his most worthy teacher within the Carthusian Charterhouse "quondam in nostrae religionis instituto praeceptoris mei dignissimi."[3]
He also developed a close relationship with his Carthusian brother, Bruno Loher, who recognised his "rigorous asceticism, piety and virtues" while highlighting his perfect submission to authority and chosen way of life shortly before Lanspergius died in his fifties.[4]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Lanspergius".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.