Table of Contents

Translator's Preface Prologue Part One Of the Divine Impression I. Of the First Trials of a Beginner II. Of the Supernatural Ecstasy which befell Him III. How He married Eternal Wisdom in a Spiritual Manner IV. How He wrote the Beloved Name of Jesus on His Heart V. Of the Prelude of Divine Consolation by which God encourages many Beginners VI. Of Various Visions VII. The Rules He observed at Table VIII. How He celebrated New Year IX. Of the Words 'Lift up Your Hearts' X. How He celebrated Candlemas XI. How He observed Lent XII. How He celebrated May Day XIII. Of the Sorrowful Way of the Cross, which He walked with Christ when He was led to His Death XIV. Of the Useful Virtue that is known as Silence XV. Of the Mortification of the Flesh XVI. Of the Sharp Cross that He carried on His Back XVII. Of His Bed XVIII. How He broke off the Habit of Drinking XIX. How He was led to the Spiritual School and instructed in the Knowledge of the true Self-Surrender XX. Of the Painful Descent XXI. Of Inner Sufferings XXII. How He set out to bring Wholesome Help to His Neighbours XXIII. Of Manifold Sufferings XXIV. Of the Great Sorrow that came to Him through His Own Sister XXV. Of the Deep Sorrow that once came upon Him through One of His Companions XXVI. Of the Murderer XXVII. In Perils of Waters XXVIII. Of a Short Respite that God once vouchsafed to Him XXIX. Of a Loving Account that He once Settled with God XXX. How He once came Near to Death in His Sufferings XXXI. How a Man should offer up His Sufferings in a Praiseworthy Manner to God XXXII. How God in This World compensates a Suffering Man for His Suffering Part Two XXXIII. Of the Servant's Spiritual Daughter XXXIV. Of the First Steps of a Beginner XXXV. Of the First Examples and Teachings for a Beginner, and the Need for Moderation in Austerities XXXVI. Of the Childlike Devotion of a Beginner in Religion XXXVII. How He drew Dissolute Persons to God, and comforted the Suffering XXXVIII. Of a Sore Affliction that befell Him about this Time XXXIX. Of Inner Suffering XL. What Sufferings are the Most Useful to Man and the Most Praiseworthy to God XLI. How He drew some Loving Hearts from Earthly Love to Divine Love XLII. Of Certain Suffering Persons who were attached to the Servant with Particular Affection XLIII. How Christ appeared to Him in the Shape of a Seraph, and taught Him how to Suffer XLIV. How Firmly he must contend Who would win the Spiritual Prize XLV. Of the Beloved Name of Jesus Epilogue

About the Author

Henry Suso (1300-66) was a German Dominican friar and a noted spiritual writer and mystic. His other spiritual writings include the Horologium Sapientiae (The Clock of Wisdom) and Exemplar Seuses (The Exemplar).

James M. Clark, late Professor of German at Glasgow University, is the author of The Great German Mystics: Eckhart, Tauler and Suso.

Reviews

"The Life of the Servant presents characteristics usually associated to religious literature, like The Confessions of St. Augustine and The Imitation of Christ. It collects several personal experiences, told shortly but brightly. They are characterized from the typical literary expressiveness that introduces the medieval amorous poetry into a religious and sacred field. "
Dialogo Filosofico vol III, issue 14, September/December

"The Life of the Servant is perhaps the most literary, and accesible, of all spiritual biographies, but although Suso wrote the bulk of the text - some of it is drawn from his disciple, the nun Elsbeth Stagel - it is written in the third person (always 'the Servant') and should not be treated as a simple autobiography. ... We can read it with both profit and pleasure."
-The Christian Parapsychologist, New Series Vol. 1 No. 14, March 2016