Leonard Goffiné (6 December 1648 – 11 August 1719) was a German Catholic priest who wrote devotional texts which remained influential in his country for two centuries afterwards.

Biography

Born in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, or according to some, Broich, at the age of nineteen he entered the Norbertine Abbey of Steinfeld, in the Eifel district of Germany, and commenced his two years novitiate in July 1667. Having made his solemn

profession A profession is a field of Work (human activity), work that has been successfully professionalized. It can be defined as a disciplined group of individuals, professionals, who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are ...

on 16 July 1667, he was sent for his course of philosophy and theology to the Norbertine college in Cologne. Ordained priest on Ember Saturday before

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, 1667, Goffine was sent to Dünwald to assist the priests who were charged with the direction of the parish and the convent of the Norbertine canonesses. In the same capacity he was afterwards sent to Ellen, where there was also a

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

of Norbertine nuns. Goffine remained four years in each of these places, being recalled by the abbot, 26 February 1680, to fill the office of novice master in the abbey. He was next given charge of the parish of Clarholz, which was incorporated with the Norbertine abbey of the same name, in the

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

of Osnabrück, for owing to the dearth of priests due

Lutheranism Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

and the Thirty Year War, abbots and bishops were obliged to have recourse to other dioceses and religious orders to fill the vacancies. Goffine remained at Clarholz five years (1680–85), and was sent thence to Niederehe, a priory which the Abbey of Steinfeld possessed in the Archdiocese of Trier. He remained in Niederehe but a very short time, being sent in 1885 to assist the clergy of St. Lambert's at Coesfield, in the Diocese of Munster. He left Coesfeld in 1691, when, at the urgent request of the Archbishop of Trier, he undertook the charge of the parishes, first of Wehr, then of Rheinböllen, and afterwards of Idar-Oberstein, from December, 1696, until his death in 1719. While parish priest of Oberstein (a mostly Protestant town) he had also to attend the Catholics living in Weiersbach, in the Diocese of Mainz. Goffine himself states that he had taken St. Norbert, the founder of his order, as his model, "because St. Norbert cared and worked so much for the salvation of souls."

Works

While he was at Coesfeld he wrote his best-known work, (brief commentaries or

Postil A postil or postill (; ) was originally a term for Bible commentaries. It is derived from the Latin ("after these words from Scripture"), referring to biblical readings. The word first occurs in the chronicle (with reference to examples of 1228 a ...

s in the form of question and answer on the proper of the mass, principally on the epistle and gospel of the day). This book was ready in 1687, and in 1688 it received the imprimatur of the Vicar-General of

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

, and in 1690 the approbation of William Heimbach, Norbertine prior of , and John Dirking, Rector of the

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college of

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. The first edition, printed in Mainz in 1690, was soon exhausted, and a second edition was printed in Cologne in 1692. Translations have been made into Moravian, Bohemian, Hungarian, English, French, Italian, Swedish and Flemish.

Other books

* (Cologne, 1692) * (Cologne) * (Cologne, 1705) *''Sermons for the whole year'', 2 vols. (Nuremberg, 1705) * (Cologne, 1712) * (Cologne, 1715) * (Cologne, 1717) * (Cologne, 1718) * (Frankfurt, 1719). *

References

* cites: * Lienhardt, . (Augsurg, 1771) * Wolfgang Grassl: ''Culture of Place: An Intellectual Profile of the Premonstratensian Order''. Bautz, Nordhausen 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Goffine, Leonard 1648 births 1719 deaths 17th-century German Roman Catholic priests Premonstratensians German male writers 18th-century German Roman Catholic priests Clergy from Cologne