Summerauer, Leonhard (d. 1585)
Leonhard (Lienhart) Summerauer (Sumerawer), a Hutterite martyr of the Salzburg area of Austria, was arrested "about eight days before St. Martin's Day" in 1584. While he was in a boat traveling to Tittmoning, the drunken sailors caused a wreck by colliding with a bridge. He escaped by a ladder put down by spectators. But the sailors cried out that their bad luck was due to the presence of an Anabaptist in the boat, and he was arrested. During his imprisonment of half a year he was severely tortured five times, but remained steadfast. In reply to the demand that he desist from his erroneous faith he said he had twenty years previously desisted from unrighteous living. The Catholic clergy made repeated sincere efforts to convert him; on the very scaffold he was offered freedom if he would recant only two articles of his faith. But he resisted all these attempts, and was beheaded at Burghausen, Bavaria, Germany on 5 July 1585. His death is the theme of the song "Himmlischer Gott und Herre, lass dich erbarmen schier."
Bibliography
Braght, Thieleman J. van. Het Bloedigh Tooneel of Martelaers Spiegel der Doopsgesinde of Weereloose Christenen, Die om 't getuygenis van Jesus haren Salighmaker geleden hebben ende gedood zijn van Christi tijd of tot desen tijd toe. Den Tweeden Druk. Amsterdam: Hieronymus Sweerts, 1685: Part II, 74.
Braght, Thieleman J. van. The Bloody Theatre or Martyrs' Mirror of the Defenseless Christians Who Baptized Only upon Confession of Faith and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus Their Saviour . . . to the Year A.D. 1660. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1951: 1060. Available online at: http://www.homecomers.org/mirror/index.htm.
Die Lieder der Hutterischen Brüder. Scottdale; 1914: 763.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. IV, 273.
Wolkan, Rudolf. Die Lieder der Wiedertäufer. Berlin, 1903: 235. Reprinted Nieuwkoop : B. De Graaf, 1965
Wolkan, Rudolf. Geschicht-Buch der Hutterischen Brüder. Macleod, AB, and Vienna, 1923: 418 f.
Zieglschmid, A. J. F. Die älteste Chronik der Hutterischen Brüder: Ein Sprachdenkmal aus frühneuhochdeutscher Zeit. Ithaca: Cayuga Press, 1943: 539-41.
| Author(s) | Christian Neff |
|---|---|
| Elizabeth Horsch Bender | |
| Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Neff, Christian and Elizabeth Horsch Bender. "Summerauer, Leonhard (d. 1585)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 19 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Summerauer,_Leonhard_(d._1585)&oldid=146281.
APA style
Neff, Christian and Elizabeth Horsch Bender. (1959). Summerauer, Leonhard (d. 1585). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Summerauer,_Leonhard_(d._1585)&oldid=146281.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 656. All rights reserved.
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