Abraham-a-Santa-Clara

Abraham-a-Santa-Clara, the monastic name of Ulrich Megerle, a very eccentric but popular German preacher, who was born near Mösirch, in Swabia, July 4, 1644, and died in Vienna, December 3, 1709. He was provincial prior of the Augustinians, and court preacher at Vienna. Uncouth puns, sharp and homely satire, and strange freaks of humour, marked his sermons; but under the fantastic shell there was a sound kernel. He was unsparing in his censure of the vices alike of courtiers and the people. His collected works fill 22 vols. (1835-50).