Henry Suso
1295 CE–1366 CE · Überlingen
Henry Suso (c. 1295–1366) was a German Dominican friar and mystical theologian, one of the foremost figures of the Rhineland mystical movement alongside his teacher Meister Eckhart and his contemporary Johannes Tauler. Deeply influenced by Eckhart's speculative mysticism, Suso gave it an affective and devotional character, emphasizing the soul's loving union with the eternal Wisdom of God through suffering and self-abandonment. His Little Book of Eternal Wisdom, composed in Middle High German and later translated into Latin as the Horologium Sapientiae, became one of the most widely circulated devotional texts of the late medieval period. He was also known for extreme ascetic practices he later moderated, and his autobiographical Life of the Servant (Das Leben des Dieners) offers a remarkable window into late medieval mystical experience. He was beatified by Pope Gregory XVI in 1831.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →
ÜberlingenGermany
What they did here
Suso was born around 1295 in or near Überlingen on Lake Constance — some sources give Constance itself as the birthplace; the exact location is uncertain. His father was Heinrich von Berg, a count of minor nobility, and he took his mother's family name (Süs) in her honor.
About Überlingen
Überlingen, a town on Lake Constance in southwestern Germany. The Dominican mystic Henry Suso was active in the Lake Constance region (Swabia and the Rhineland) in the 14th century.
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Henry Suso’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Henry Suso’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Buddhist world
Islamic world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.