The Imitation Of CHRIST (Thomas À Kempis) & Saint Edmund Campion (Defender Of The Catholic Faith)

The Imitation Of CHRIST (Thomas À Kempis) & Saint Edmund Campion (Defender Of The Catholic Faith)

The Imitation of Christ (Latin: De Imitatione Christi) by Thomas à Kempis is a Christian devotional book. It was first composed in Latin ca. 1418–1427.[1][2] It is a handbook for spiritual life arising from the Devotio Moderna movement, of which Kempis was a member.
The Imitation is perhaps the most widely read Christian devotional work next to the Bible,[2][4] and is regarded as a devotional and religious classic.[5] Its popularity was immediate, and it was printed 745 times before 1650.[6] Apart from the Bible, no book has been translated into more languages than the Imitation of Christ.
The text is divided into four books, which provide detailed spiritual instructions: “Helpful Counsels of the Spiritual Life”, “Directives for the Interior Life”, “On Interior Consolation” and “On the Blessed Sacrament”.
The approach taken in the Imitation is characterized by its emphasis on the interior life and withdrawal from the world, as opposed to an active imitation of Christ by other friars.[1] The book places a high level of emphasis on the devotion to the Eucharist as key element of spiritual life.
Thomas à Kempis, CRSA (c. 1380 – 25 July 1471)[1] was a German who became a canon regular in the Netherlands and authored The Imitation of Christ, one of the most popular and best known Christian books on devotion. His name means Thomas “of Kempen”, his hometown, and in German he is known as Thomas von Kempen (in Dutch, Thomas van Kempen).

Saint Edmund Campion, S.J., (born 24 January 1540 – 1 December 1581), was an English Catholic Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. Campion was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day is celebrated every 1st of December.