“The Imitation of Christ”

by Thomas a Kempis

Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) was a priest, monk, and writer. His family name was Hammercken, and he was born in the town of Kempen near Düsseldorf in Germany. He attended a school at nearby Deventer in Holland, and was taught by the ‘Brothers of the Common Life.’ These were men devoted to prayer, simplicity, and union with God. Thomas ‘of Kempen,’ as he was known at school, was so impressed by his teachers that he decided to live his life according to their ideals. When he was 19, he entered the monastery of Mount St. Agnes in Holland, and spent the rest of his long life behind the walls of that monastery.

The pattern of Thomas’s life remained the same over the years. He devoted his time to prayer, study, copying manuscripts, teaching novices, offering Mass, and hearing the confessions of people who came to the monastery church. From time to time Thomas was given a position of authority in the community of monks, but he consistently preferred the quiet of his cell to the challenge of administration. The other monks eventually recognized Thomas’s talent for deep thought and stopped troubling him with practical affairs.

Thomas wrote a number of sermons, letters, and hymns. The most famous of his works by far is The Imitation of Christ. This small book, free from intellectual pretensions, has had great appeal to anyone interested in probing beneath the surface of life. Thomas died in the same monastic obscurity in which he had lived on August 8, 1471.

The Imitation of Christ has been for five hundred years the most widely read book of Christian devotion in the world. Many regard it as second only to the Bible in its simplicity of expression and the depth of its meaning. Thomas’s approach to the Christian life is challenging and his admonitions are often severe. But Thomas would probably tell us that it is a lack of such firmness with ourselves that results in our fragile spirits, and such weakness leads to much of our misery. “You must be hard on yourself,” he wrote, ” or you will never gain the victory over wickedness and unbelief.”

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