Johann Michael Sailer

Johann Michael Sailer
Bishop of Regensburg
Johann Michael Sailer
Church	Catholic Church
Diocese	Diocese of Regensburg
Personal details
Born	17 October 1751 Aresing
Died	20 May 1832 (1832-05-21) (aged 80) Regensburg

Johann Michael Sailer (Aresing, 17 October 1751 – Regensburg, 20 May 1832) was a German Jesuit professor of theology and Bishop of Regensburg.

Sailer was born at Aresing in Upper Bavaria on 17 October 1751 as the son of a poor shoemaker. Until his tenth year he attended the primary school in his native place; after this he was a pupil in the gymnasium at Munich. In 1770 he entered the Society of Jesus at Landsberg in Upper Bavaria as a novice; upon the suppression of the Society in 1773 he continued his theological and philosophical studies at Ingolstadt. In 1775 he was ordained priest; 1777-80 he was a tutor of philosophy and theology, and from 1780 second professor of dogmatics at Ingolstadt.

Along with many others, he lost his position in 1781 when the Elector Charles Theodore transferred theological instruction to the monasteries. In the years 1781-84 while engaged in literary work he attracted the attention of the elector and Bishop Clement Wenceslaus, who in 1794 called Sailer to Dillingen as professor of pastoral theology and ethics, where today a high-school is named after him. Sailer held this position for ten years and brought him a high reputation. His opponents, professors of Dillingen and Rossle, the principal of the school at Pfaffenhausen, succeeded in limiting Sailer's activities in 1793 and in securing his sudden dismissal in 1794. Sailer now went to visit his friend Winkelhofer at Munich, and pursued there by his opponents, went to the house of his friend Beck at Ebersberg. Here he devoted himself to literary work until he was called in 1799 to a professorship at Ingolstadt. In 1800 he was transferred along with the university to Landshut where he taught pastoral and moral theology, pedagogics, homiletics, liturgy and catechetics.