Author

Denis the Carthusian

1402–1471

Dionysius the Carthusian (born 1402/1403, Rijkel, Lower Lorraine, Holy Roman Empire [now in Belgium]—died March 12, 1471, Roermond, Lower Lorraine [now in the Netherlands]) was a theologian and mystic, one of the important contributors to, and propagators of, the influential school of Rhenish spirituality originating in the 14th century. Educated at the University of Cologne, Dionysius entered the Carthusian order at the charterhouse of Roermond in 1425. In 1451–52 he accompanied Nicholas of Cusa, papal legate to northern Germany and the Netherlands, on a mission for church reform in the Rhineland. In charge of the Carthusians at ’s Hertogenbosch from 1465, he retired in 1469 because of poor health.