Thomas à Kempis
The Reverend Thomas à Kempis | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1380 Kempen, Prince-Archbishopric of Cologne, Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 25 July 1471 (aged 90–91) Zwolle, Bishopric of Utrecht, Holy Roman Empire |
| Venerated in | Catholicism Anglicanism Lutheranism |
| Major shrine | Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ten-Hemelopnemingkerk |
| Feast | 30 August |
| Influences | Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Joan of Arc, Dante Alighieri, Paul the Apostle, Geert Groote, Florens Radewyns, Henry Suso |
| Influenced | Alexander Hegius von Heek, Thérèse of Lisieux, Thomas More, John Fisher, Ignatius of Loyola, Erasmus, Edmund Burke, Joseph De Maistre, Thomas Merton, John Wesley, José Rizal, Swami Vivekananda, Shailer Mathews, Søren Kierkegaard, George Preca |
| Major works | The Imitation of Christ |
Thomas à Kempis, CRV (c. 1380 – 25 July 1471; German: Thomas von Kempen; Dutch: Thomas van Kempen) was a German-Dutch Catholic canon regular of the Augustinians and the author of The Imitation of Christ, one of the best known Christian devotional books. His name means "Thomas of Kempen", Kempen, Germany, being his home town.
He was a member of the Congregation of Windesheim, which was part of the Modern Devotion, a reform movement during the late medieval period. Therein, he was a follower of Geert Groote and Florens Radewyns, the founders of the Brethren of the Common Life, of which the Windesheim Augustinians were an offshoot.