delighted at seeing the good will of the people. Even men, among them persons of distinction, set aside all other business and come to listen to the instruction for children."[1]
Throughout his life Canisius found a special delight in giving catechetical instructions. The son of a distinguished family, the celebrated Doctor of theology, and author of many learned works, the founder of the famous colleges of Prague, Ingolstadt, Munich, Dillingen, Innsbruck, and Freiburg, the man whose advice was sought by the Emperors of Germany, by the Dukes of Bavaria, by Popes and Cardinals, by Church Councils and Imperial Diets – this man devoted every spare minute to the humble work of instructing children, and that not only in the cities where he resided, but on his many journeys, from one end of Germany to the other, he performed the same work of Christian charity among the simple country people. In his old age, when worn out by incessant toils, this was his favorite occupation. A year before his death, in his seventy-eighth year, he writes that his time is spent in "instructing children and old people."[2] A touching testimony to this work of the saintly Jesuit is still extant at the present day. In a little village near Innsbruck (Tyrol) is to be seen, on the gable of an old house, a picture which represents Canisius sitting among children whom he is instructing in their catechism. It was before this house that, on his journeys to Innsbruck, he used to perform the work which the picture has immortalized. We have dwelt longer on the labors of this great
