POIRTERS, ADRIAEN

Flemish Jesuit spiritual writer; b. Oisterwijk, The Netherlands, Nov. 2, 1605; d. Malines, July 4, 1674. Poirters attended the Jesuit secondary school at Bois-le-Duc and studied philosophy at the University of Douai before he entered the Society of Jesus on July 25, 1625. He was ordained in Louvain on March 20, 1638 and pronounced the four solemn vows at Roermond on Dec. 26, 1641. He was afterward active as a preacher and a confessor, mainly in Roermond and Malines. From 1640 on, he was remarkably productive as a popular writer. His main works are Het Masker van de Wereldt afghetrocken (1645, The Mask Torn from the World), Het Duyfken in de Steen-Rotse (1657, The Little Pigeon in the Rock), and Den Spieghel van Philagie (1671, The Mirror of Philagy), all of them reprinted as late as the 19th century.

These writings are in the current of the Counter Reformation, of which they represent the popular and pessimistic aspect; they aim at animating and deepening spiritual life among religious and laymen generally, and especially among women. In the course of his work Poirters mildly satirizes the contemporary love of splendor so eloquently illustrated in the paintings of Rubens, van Dyke, and Jordaens; he further resorts to somewhat sentimental and highly personal meditations on Christ's sufferings and death. In form, Poirters's works belong to emblematic literature, of which they represent the last phase: the inscriptions in verse and prose have come to be more important than the engravings. The verses are fluent and suggest the influence of the Dutch poets Cats and vondel. The pithy and colorful prose fragments have considerable literary value.

Bibliography: e. rombauts, Leven en werken van pater Adrianus Poirters S.J. (1605–1674) (Ghent 1930).

[e. rombauts]