1624–1677

Introduction

portrait

Born: De­cem­ber 1624, Bre­slau, Si­le­sia (now Wro­cław, Po­land).

Died: Ju­ly 9, 1677, St. Mat­thi­as mo­nas­te­ry, Bres­lau, Si­le­sia.

Buried: St. Mat­thi­as mon­as­te­ry, Bre­slau, Si­le­sia.

Pseudonyms:

Biography

Johann was the son of Stan­is­laus Scheffl­er. His fa­ther, a mem­ber of the Po­lish no­bil­ity, was forced to leave his home­land be­cause of his ad­here­nce to Lu­ther­an­ism.

Johann at­tend­ed Eli­za­beth’s Gym­na­si­um in Bres­lau, than en­rolled as a med­ic­al stu­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Strass­burg in 1643.

The next year, he went to Ley­den, and in 1647, to Pa­dua (PhD & MD 1648). He then re­turned to Si­le­sia, where in 1649 he be­came the pri­vate phy­si­cian of Syl­vi­us Nim­rod of Würt­tem­burg-Oels.

The Duke was a staunch Lu­ther­an, and his court preach­er, Chris­tian­toph Frei­tag, ad­min­is­tered the ec­cle­sias­ti­cal af­fairs of the dis­trict ac­cord­ing to strict Lut­her­an or­tho­doxy.

Scheffler, who in Hol­land had be­come ac­quaint­ed with the writ­ings of Ja­kob Böh­me, and had been a pers­on­al friend of Ab­ra­ham von Frank­en­berg, ed­it­or of Böh­me’s works, soon found that the spir­it­ual at­mo­sphere of Oels did not suit him.

He re­signed his post in 1652 and re­turned to Bre­slau. There he be­came ac­quaint­ed with the Je­su­its. In 1653 he joined the Ro­man Ca­tho­lic church, and took the name An­gel­us.

In 1654, Em­per­or Fer­di­nand made Scheff­ler the Im­pe­ri­al Court Phy­si­cian, but the ti­tle was pure­ly hon­or­ary, and Scheff­ler re­mained in Bres­lau.

In 1661, Scheff­ler joined the or­der of St. Fran­cis, and was also or­dained priest at Nies­se, Si­le­sia (now Ny­sa, Po­land).

In 1664, he was ap­point­ed Rath and Hof­mar­schall to his friend Se­bas­ti­an von Ros­tock, the newly cre­at­ed Prince Bi­shop of Bres­lau.

After the bish­op’s death in 1671, Scheff­ler re­tired to the mon­as­te­ry of St. Mat­thi­as in Bres­lau.

Sources

Lyrics

  1. Ach Gott, was hat vor Herr­lich­keit
  2. Ach, sagt mir nicht von Gold und Schätz­en
  3. Ach, was steh’st du auf der Au
  4. Auf, auf, O Seel’, zuf auf, zum Streit
  5. Dank Dir, O Herr, dass Gold und Schätze
  6. Dein’ eigne Liebe zwing­et mich
  7. Der edle Schäf­er, Gott­es Sohn
  8. Die Son­ne kommt her­an
  9. Du un­ver­gleich­lich’s Gut
  10. Grosser Kön­ig, dem ich diene
  11. Ich will dich lieb­en, meine Stärke
  12. Ihf En­gel, die das höchste Gut
  13. Jesu, ew’ge Son­ne
  14. Jesu, komm doch selbst zu mir
    • Dearest Je­sus, Come to Me
    • Jesu, Je­su, Come to Me
    • Jesus, Je­sus, Come to Me!
    • Jesus, Come Thy­self to Me
    • Jesus, Je­sus, Vis­it Me
    • Jesus, Sav­ior, Come to Me
  15. Keine Schön­heit hat die Welt
  16. Liebe die du mich zum Bilde
  17. Meine Seele willt du ruh’n
  18. Mir nach, spricht Chris­tus, un­ser Held
  19. Morgenstern der fin­stern Nacht
  20. Nun nimm mein Herz, und al­les was ich bin
  21. O du all­er­lieb­ster Gott
  22. Schau’, Braut, wie hängt dein Bräu­tig­am
  23. Soul Wher­ein God Dwells, The
  24. Tritt hin, o Seel’, und dank’ dem Herrn
  25. Weil ich schon sch’die gold’nen Wang­en
  26. Wie lieb­lich sind die Woh­nung­en
  27. Wollt ihr den Herr­en find­en
  28. Wo willt du hin, weils Ab­end ist
  29. Zeuch mich nach dir, so lauf­en wir

Music

  1. Culbach
  2. Keine Schön­heit Hat die Welt