Avancinus, Nicholas

Avancinus, Nicholas a Jesuit, was born at Tyrol in 1612. At the age of fifteen he joined the order at Graz. For about ten years he lectured on ethics and scholastic theology at Vienna, was then appointed rector of the colleges of Passau, Vienna, and Graz, and in 1676 he was made provincial of the order in Austria and visitor of Bohemia. He died December 6, 1686. His main work is Vita et Doctrina Jesu Christi ex Quatuor Evangelistis Collecta (Vienna, 1665), which has repeatedly been reprinted (best edition by Westhoff, 1844), and translated into German by Feichtenleine (Augsburg, 1820), Wittmann (ibid. 1822; 2d ed. 1834), by a Catholic priest (Munich, 1850; 3d ed. 1860), by Zollner (Regensburg, 1867), Dotsch (ibid. 1871), Ecker (Freiburg, 1877), also into Polish. See Sotwell, Bibl. Script. S.J.; Stoger, Scriptores Pnrovinciae Austriacae S.J.; Backer, 1:329-334; 3:1932; Comely, in Wetzer u. Welte's Kirchenlexikon, s.v.; Zuchold, Bibl. Theol. 1:58. (B.P.)