author
active 15th century von Kastl Johannes
A Benedictine monk and spiritual writer from the early 1400s, this little-known author is remembered for devotional and theological works that circulated widely in late medieval Germany. His writing is closely tied to the reform-minded religious culture of Kastl Abbey.
1 Audiobook
Le specule des pecheurs
by active 15th century von Kastl Johannes
About the author
Very little about his life can be confirmed, but Johannes von Kastl is generally identified as a Benedictine monk associated with Kastl Abbey in Bavaria. Reference works describe him as a theological and ascetic writer, with activity in the late 14th and early 15th centuries.
According to Deutsche Biographie, he earned the degree of baccalaureus in Prague in 1388, may have served as prior at Kastl in 1399, wrote De lumine increato in 1410, and was later connected with reform work at Weihenstephan. His surviving reputation rests mainly on spiritual and devotional writings rather than on a detailed personal record.
One work in particular, De adhaerendo Deo, became especially well known. For a long time it was mistakenly attributed to Albertus Magnus, but later scholarship argued that it was actually Johannes von Kastl's work, which helped renew interest in him as a voice of late medieval monastic spirituality.