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Thomas à Kempis (1379/80–1471)

DOI
10.4324/9780415249126-B108-1
DOI: 10.4324/9780415249126-B108-1
Version: v1,  Published online: 1998
Retrieved March 29, 2024, from https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/thomas-a-kempis-1379-80-1471/v-1

Article Summary

Thomas Hemerken was born in Kempen, Germany. He spent his life in foundations of the Modern Devotion (Devotio Moderna), a spiritual movement of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that originated in the Low Countries and spread throughout northern Europe. In 1406 he entered the monastery of Mount Saint Agnes in Windesheim (St Agnietenberg, the Netherlands), the origin and centre of a reformed congregation of Augustinian Canons Regular, which disseminated the Modern Devotion in the Low Countries and Germany. Thomas was ordained a priest in 1413, and was the novice master in the monastery for many years. He is generally recognized as the author of De imitatione Christi (The Imitation of Christ), perhaps the most popular work on the spiritual life ever written.

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Citing this article:
Emery, Kent. Thomas à Kempis (1379/80–1471), 1998, doi:10.4324/9780415249126-B108-1. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Taylor and Francis, https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/thomas-a-kempis-1379-80-1471/v-1.
Copyright © 1998-2024 Routledge.

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