Statue of Caesarius made by Ernemann Sander in Königswinter-Oberdollendorf

Caesar of Heisterbach, also known as Caesarius of Heisterbach ca. 1170 - ca. 1250, was the prior of the former Cistercian Heisterbach Abbey, in the Siebengebirge near the little town of Oberdollendorf, Germany. Königswinter is a town and summer resort of Germany in North Rhine-Westphalia, on the right bank of the Rhine, 24 m. ... Events December 29: Assassination of Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury, in Canterbury cathedral City of Dublin captured by the Normans According to folklore, the Welsh prince Madoc sailed to North America and founded a colony. ... Events December 13 - Death of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor Louis IX of France is captured by Muslims and has to ransom himself Mabinogion appears Albertus Magnus isolates the element arsenic Vincent of Beauvais writes proto-encyclopedic The Greater Mirror City of Stockholm founded Alphonso III of Portugal takes Algarve... Prior is a Latin adjective, meaning coming before, as earlier (as in a priori, regardless what comes next). ... The Order of Cistercians (OCist) (Latin Cistercenses), otherwise Gimey or White Monks (from the colour of the habit, over which is worn a black scapular or apron) are a Catholic order of monks. ... The castle Schloß Drachenburg belongs among the emblems of the Siebengebirge The Siebengebirge (lit. ...

He is best known as the compiler of a book of hagiography that contains many wondrous tales of miracles in the form of dialogues between a monk and a novice, the Dialogus magnus visionum ac miraculorum, which is a consistently readable and entertaining, if somewhat sensationalistic and credulous, compilation of that lore. The work was often referred to by preachers seeking material for sermons in the Late Middle Ages. The work was popular and was widely distributed, showing that it catered well to the tastes of the times; it was perhaps the second largest late mediaeval best-seller, second only to the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine. Hagiography is the study of saints. ... According to many religions, a miracle, derived from the old Latin word miraculum meaning something wonderful, is a striking interposition of divine intervention by God in the universe by which the ordinary course and operation of Nature is overruled, suspended, or modified. ... A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. ... Dante by Michelino The Late Middle Ages is a term used by historians to describe European history in the period of the 14th and 15th centuries (1300–1500 A.D.). The Late Middle Ages were preceded by the High Middle Ages, and followed by the Early Modern era (Renaissance). ... The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine is a collection of fanciful hagiographies, lives of the saints, that became a late mediæval best seller. ... Jacobus de Voragine (c. ...

He is also remembered for a maxim on the rise and fall of monasteries; he wrote that discipline causes prosperity in a monastery, and prosperity undermines discipline. He also revealed the name of Titivillus as the demon who allegedly caused typographical errors in the work of scribes. Titivillus is a demon, said to work on behalf of Lucifer, Satan, or Belphegor in the Middle Ages, to introduce errors into the work of a scribe. ... St. ... A typographical error, or typo, is a mistake made during the typing process. ...

Though the priory was dissolved in 1803, when the library and archives were given to the city of Düsseldorf and the monastery and the church sold and torn down in 1809, and though at present only the ruinous apse with the ruins of the choir remains, a monument was erected in his honour near the ruins in 1897. Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and (together with Cologne and the Ruhr Area) the economic center of Western Germany. ...

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Heisterbach
• Medieval Sourcebook: Caesarius of Heisterbach, from Dialogus, book V: on medieval heresies
• Dialogus Miraculorum, volume 1, images from an 1851 edition (Latin)