Drexel, Jeremias
DREXEL, JEREMIAS
Jesuit educator, preacher, and spiritual writer; b. Augsburg, Aug. 15, 1581; d. Munich, April 19, 1638. A Lutheran by birth, he was converted in his youth, educated by the Jesuits, and in 1598 entered the Jesuit novitiate. He completed his philosophical and theological studies at Ingolstadt and became professor of humanities in Munich and Augsburg. He taught the Jesuit seminarians at Dillingen and then for 23 years was preacher at the court of the elector of Bavaria. During this period he accompanied Maximilian on his Bohemian campaign. From 1620 until his death he wrote some 20 works that were avidly read and zealously translated. His first work, De aeternitate considerationes, underwent four distinct English translations before 1710. Among the considerations, Drexel noted various representations of eternity—the natural, the Roman, and the Scriptural. Another of his works, Heliotropium (1627), translated into English in 1862, discussed man's recognition of the divine will and conformity to it.
Bibliography: p. bailly, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique. Doctrine et histoire, ed. m. viller et al. (Paris 1932–) 3:1714–17. c. sommervogel et al., Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, 11 v. (Brussels-Paris 1890–1932) 3:181–205. b. duhr, Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge, 4 v. in 5 (St. Louis 1907–28) 2.2:444–449.
[d. m. barry]