Martin Boos - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Martin Boos was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

Roman Catholic theologian.

He was born at Huttenried in Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

. Orphaned at the age of four, he was reared by an uncle at Augsburg

Augsburg

Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

, who finally sent him to the University of Dillingen

University of Dillingen

The University of Dillingen, at Dillingen an der Donau in southern Germany, existed from 1551 to 1803. It was located in Swabia, then a district of Bavaria.-Foundation:...

, where he studied under Sailer

Johann Michael Sailer

Johann Michael Sailer was a German Jesuit professor of theology and Bishop of Ratisbon.-Biography:Sailer was born at Aresing in Upper Bavaria on 17 October 1751 as the son of a poor shoemaker. Until his tenth year he attended the primary school in his native place; after this he was a pupil in the...

, Zimmer, and Weber. There he laid the foundation of the modest piety by which his whole life was distinguished. He had followed the extreme practises of asceticism

Asceticism

Asceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...

as a penance

Penance

Penance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox Christian, and Anglican Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession. It also plays a part in non-sacramental confession among Lutherans and other Protestants...

for sin

Sin

In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...

, all to no avail, as he believed, and then developed a doctrine of salvation by faith which came very near to pure Lutheranism

Lutheranism

Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

. This he preached with great effect.

After serving as priest in several Bavarian towns, he was driven from Bavaria by the opposition of the ecclesiastical authorities and other priests. He made his way in 1799 to Linz

Linz

Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...

in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, where he was welcomed by Bishop Gall, and set to work first at Leonding

Leonding

Leonding is a city situated to the southwest of Linz, Austria in the state of Upper Austria. It has a population of about 22,269 and an area of 24.05 km²...

and then at Waldneukirchen

Waldneukirchen

Waldneukirchen is a municipality in the district of Steyr-Land in Upper Austria, Austria.-References:...

, becoming in 1806 pastor at Gallneukirchen

Gallneukirchen

Gallneukirchen is a small city in Upper Austria, Austria and is part of the district "Urfahr-Umgebung" with an official population of 6281.- History :...

. His pietistic movement won considerable way among the Catholic laity, and even attracted some fifty or sixty priests.

The death of Gall and other powerful friends, however, exposed him to bitter enmity and persecution from about 1812, and he had to answer endless accusations in the consistorial courts

Chapter (religion)

Chapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches....

. His enemies followed him when he returned to Bavaria, but in 1817 the Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

n government appointed him to a professorship at Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

, and in 1819 gave him the pastorate at Sayn

Sayn

Sayn was a mediæval German County located in the Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. There were two Counties of Sayn: the first County emerged in 1139. It became closely associated with the County of Sponheim early in its existence. Count Henry II was notable for being accused of...

near Neuwied

Neuwied

Neuwied is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the right bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne...

. He died in 1825.

His autobiography was edited by Johannes Gossner

Johannes Gossner

Johannes Evangelista Gossner , German divine and philanthropist, was born at Hausen near Augsburg.He was educated at the University of Dillingen...

, Leipzig, 1831, Eng. transl., London, 1836, who also issued two volumes of his sermons Berlin, 1830.

See also