Johann von Staupitz

Who was Johann von Staupitz?

Johann von Staupitz was a theologian, university preacher, Vicar-General of the Augustinian Order in Germany who supervised Martin Luther during a critical period in that man's spiritual life. Martin Luther himself remarked, "If it had not been for Dr. Staupitz, I should have sunk in hell." Although he died as a Catholic monk and had repudiated the Reformation, he is commemorated on 8 November as a priest in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church.

Staupitz was born in Motterwitz about 1460. Descended from an old Saxon family of Czech origin, he matriculated in the year 1485 and was accepted into the Augustinian order in Munich before being posted to Tübingen, where he was eventually promoted to the rank of prior. In 1500, Staupitz was made a Doctor of Theology and in 1503 he was elected to the post of Vicar general of the German Congregation of Augustinians. He was also made dean of the theology faculty at the new University of Wittenberg when it was founded in 1502. In 1512, while in his fifties, Staupitz resigned his professorship and relocated to the southern part of Germany, resigning his vicar-generalship officially in 1520.