HÖSS, CRESCENTIA, BL.

Eminent mystic of the Franciscan Third Order; b. Kaufbeuren, Bavaria, Oct. 20, 1682; d. there, April 5,1744. From her childhood she showed unusual spiritual maturity and special regard for virginity. The benevolence of the Protestant burgomeister assisted her entrance into the Franciscan convent, frustrated earlier by her lack of the needed dowry. There she endured the severe trials that developed her religious perfection. During her appointment as mistress of novices and superior, her reputation for visions, ecstasy, prophecy, and the mystical suffering of the Passion, brought her into correspondence with ecclesiastics and many of the Catholic and Protestant laity. She was beatified by leo xiii on October 7,1900. In 1849, six sisters from Kaufbeuren came to Milwaukee, Wis., and founded the first community of the Franciscan Tertiaries in the U.S.

Feast: April 6 (formerly April 5).

Bibliography: r. pazzelli, Il Terz'ordine regolore di S. Francesco (Rome 1958). e. schlund, Zeitschrift für Aszese und Mystik 2:295–319. a. m. miller, Crescentia von Kaufbeuren; das Leben einer schwäbischen Mystikerin (Augsburg 1968), extensive bibiliography. d. ott, Crescentia Höss v. Kaufbeuren in der Sicht ihrer Zeit, ed. j. gatz (Landshut 1971). m. j. heinrichsperger, Die Ältesten Quellen zum Leben der Schwester Crescentia Höss (Landshut 1975), critical ed. f. boespflug, Dieu dans l'art: Sollicitudini Nostrae de Benoît XIV et l'affaire Cresence de Kaufbeuren (Paris 1984). r. glÄser, Die selige Crescentia von Kaufbeuren: Leben, Worte, Schriften und Lehre (St. Ottilien 1984). k. pÖrnbacher, Crescentia Höss von Kaufbeuren (Weissenhorn 1993).

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