Thomas à Kempis
1380 – 1471 · aged 91
German canon regular
- Born
- 1380 · Kempen
- Died
- 1471 · Zwolle
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 1380BornBorn in Kempen
- 1471DiedDied in Zwolle
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1380 – 1471).
- c. 1440Gutenberg’s printing press
- 1453Fall of Constantinople
- 1455 – 1487Wars of the Roses
Biography
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380 – 1 May 1471; German: Thomas von Kempen; Dutch: Thomas van Kempen) was a German-Dutch Catholic canon regular of the Augustinians and the author of The Imitation of Christ, one of the best known Christian devotional books. His name means "Thomas of Kempen", Kempen, Germany, being his home town.
He was a member of the Congregation of Windesheim, which was part of the Modern Devotion, a reform movement during the late medieval period. Therein, he was a follower of Geert Groote and Florens Radewyns, the founders of the Brethren of the Common Life, of which the Windesheim Augustinians were an offshoot.
Text from the Wikipedia article Thomas à Kempis, CC BY-SA 4.0
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