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St Peter Canisius is the Doctor of Catechetical Studies. Nearly all the doctors have something to share with us through the new catechism. All who ever read a catechism, prayed the rosary, or had devotion to the heart of Jesus, owe Peter a debt for his significant contributions to the catholic faith.
Saint Canisius was a brilliant, humble and indefatigable worker. He is the Doctor's Doctor and wrote about our first pope doctor, St Leo the Great, and St Cyril of Alexandria, another Doctor of the Church, also called the "Seal of the Fathers". Despite always being extraordinarily busy, he always made time for God, praying constantly with Jesus and Mary and anyone in need of his assistance.
Our saint founded and opened many schools and universities and was one of the creators of the Catholic Press and of the Catholic Periodical.
Father Christopher Rengers, OFM, Cap., described Peter in a most colorful manner in his younger years through his masterful book entitled The 33 Doctors of the Church found in the doctoral sources.
"In an account known as his Confessions (c. 1570) and his Testament (c.1596), St. Peter Canisius accuses himself as a boy of contentiousness, fits of anger, jealousies, secret hatreds, arrogance, inconsiderate expressing of opinions on weighty matters, "like a blind man discoursing of colors," and carelessness in resisting temptations against purity arising from thought, desire and the conversation of the boys he associated with. His intense humility can be expected to underscored his faults, but his words tells us that he did have a nature that needed to be tamed and controlled. In early youth he also had the inclination occasionally to be deeply stirred spiritually and to give signs of his future vocation by playing priest, acting out the Mass, preaching, singing and praying, all this sometimes before a group of playmates. He also liked to serve Mass. (Confessions, p. 12 of Braunsberger, Vol.1)"
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