CONRAD DE GROSSIS, RELIGIOUS AND REFORMER

CONRAD DE GROSSIS, RELIGIOUS AND REFORMER - 10 MARCH

CONRAD DE GROSSIS, RELIGIOUS AND REFORMER

Conrad (Konrad) de Grossis (of Prussia, of Brüssen)

entered the Order of Preachers in 1370 and became a member of the Cologne monastery. In his early years, his religious zeal left something to be desired; he was known as "a wild, untamed brother". On April 18, 1387, the General of the Order, Raymond of Capua, appointed Conrad vicar of the church "S. Maria in Valle Iosaphat iuxta Berlin", and also allowed him to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which brought about Conrad's most profound conversion.

Before the General of the Order, at the Vienna General Chapter in 1388, Conrad offered to implement the Order's reform in the spirit of its original strictness. On September 28, 1388, Raymond appointed him vicar of the Berne convent, but already on June 13, 1389 another change of setting followed as he was nominated as vicar of Kolmar (Province of Teutonia). Promptly, Conrad moved into this monastery, taking with him 30 brothers willing to reform. As the first general vicar for the reform of the religious Orders in Germany, he also reformed the Dominican nunnery at Schönensteinbach in the diocese of Basel in 1395. After this successful start, the Order reform spread from these two monasteries across the Rhineland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and southern Germany.

After his term in this role had come to an end in 1396, Conrad appears in the records as vicar and confessor of the nuns of Saint Catherine in Nuremberg in December 1397. The Dominicans there elected him prior shortly afterwards. A few years later he carried out the Order reform in the Utrecht convent, which belonged to Saxonia. Not far from Utrecht, in Wijk and Westeroye, Schönensteinbach founded daughter monasteries. Similar to John Dominici (Johannes Dominici), Conrad also tried to reintroduce begging poverty, but it soon disappeared from the reform programme.

Conrad was extremely knowledgeable "ignitissimus praedicator et ardentissimus animarum zelator", and also distinguished by visions. He died "in the odour of holiness" [on March 10, 1426]. His important contribution is the practical implementation of the Order reform, which saved the Order in Germany and enabled the flowering of late medieval mysticism.

Source: Eßer OP, Ambrosius, "Konrad de Grossis" in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 12 (1980), S. 540 [Online-Version]; URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd119033135.html#ndbcontent

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