Wisdom’s Watch upon the Hours

by Henry Suso

Publisher:

Catholic University of America

, 1994

Overview

Written by Dominican preacher and mystic Heinrich Seuse (1300–1366), Horologium Sapientiae, or Wisdom’s Watch upon the Hours, was one of the most successful religious writings of its time. Essentially a dialogue between the author and Divine Wisdom, the Watch tells of Seuse’s service to and espousal of Wisdom, his “most cruel bride,” with a charm reminiscent of contemporary chivalric romance literature. The Watch’s many readers doubtless esteemed it for its devotional fervor and for the solutions Seuse offers to the problems inseparable from a sincere Christian life. He teaches that a devotion of sharing in the Savior’s self-sacrifice is the path to spiritual perfection, as well as a consolation for the soul amid life’s cares. Seuse keenly observes and judiciously criticizes the abuses of his own times and the rise of secularism, hedonism, and materialism. He writes of his yearning for a way of life that was fast disappearing, for the piety and simplicity of the country folk he had known as a boy. For Seuse, the “Christocentric Boethius,” the men and women of his youth were heirs of the Eternal Wisdom, founded on Christ and found in Christ, which was being lost and forgotten in the new urban cultures.

Product Details

• Title: Wisdom’s Watch upon the Hours
• Author: Henry Suso
• Series: The Fathers of the Church: Mediaeval Continuation
• Volume: 4
• Publisher: Catholic University of America
• Print Publication Date: 1994
• Logos Release Date: 2016
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Mysticism › Early works to 1800
• ISBNs: 0813207924, 9780813207926
• Resource ID: LLS:WSDMSWTCHHRS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T21:11:42Z

About Henry Suso

Henry Suso (Also called Amandus, a name adopted in his writings, and Heinrich Seuse in German) was a German mystic, born at Überlingen on Lake Constance on March 21, c. 1300; he died at Ulm, January 25, 1366; declared Blessed in 1831 by Gregory XVI, who assigned his feast in the Dominican Order to March 2. The Dominicans now celebrate his feast on January 23, the feria, or “free” day, nearest the day of his death.