Blessed Henry Suso

Blessed Henry Suso was a German Dominican, a priest, preacher, and mystic. He studied under Meister Eckhart, and his “Little Book of Eternal Wisdom” was among the most widely read devotional books of the late Middle Ages. The Church commemorates him on January 25.

He was born on March 21 in Constance or in nearby Überlingen. The year of his birth is not known for certain: 1295 or 1297 is most often given. His father came from the noble family of von Berg and his mother from the Sus family, and it was from her surname that Henry took the name by which he is known. At the age of thirteen he entered the Dominican priory in Constance.

When he was eighteen he experienced an inner conversion, and from then on he called himself the servant of Eternal Wisdom, in whom he recognized Christ. The “Life,” written down with the help of the Dominican nun Elsbeth Stagel of the convent of Töss, tells of severe mortifications and of how he cut the monogram of the name of Jesus into his chest. In the view of scholars it is in part a literary work, so its details must be taken with caution. At about the age of forty Henry gave up outward penances, having come to understand that God expected of him the patient bearing of adversities.

The Order sent him to study in Cologne, where in the 1320s he was a student of Meister Eckhart. On his return he taught in his home priory as lector. In the “Little Book of Truth” he defended the right understanding of the teaching of his master, who was then accused of errors. At a chapter of the Order in the Low Countries he too was charged with heresy. He was not condemned, but he lost the office of lector. Together with Eckhart and John Tauler he is counted among the most important Rhineland mystics.

About 1330 he wrote the “Little Book of Eternal Wisdom,” a conversation between the Servant and Wisdom that leads the reader to meditate on the Passion of Christ. A few years later Henry reworked it in Latin as the “Horologium Sapientiae.” For many years he preached along the Upper Rhine, in Switzerland, and in Alsace, and he took particular care of the convents of Dominican nuns.

When, in the dispute between the pope and Emperor Louis the Bavarian, Constance was placed under interdict, the Dominicans, loyal to the pope, lived for several years in exile at Diessenhofen. About 1343 Henry was elected prior. A woman falsely named him as the father of her child, but he was cleared of the charge. About 1348 he was transferred to Ulm, where in 1362 and 1363 he gathered his German writings into a whole known as the “Exemplar.”

He died in Ulm on January 25, 1366, and was buried in the Dominican church there. His cult was confirmed in 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI, which is equivalent to beatification. The Roman Martyrology remembers him as a priest of the Order of Preachers who patiently endured countless troubles and illnesses, composed the treatise on Eternal Wisdom, and constantly preached the most sweet name of Jesus.