Angelus Silesius (Johann Scheffler)

Johann Scheffler was born at Breslau in 1624 and died there in 1677. He trained as a physician, was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1653 and ordained priest in 1661, and took the name Angelus Silesius, the Silesian Angel, for his poetry. His devotional hymns appeared in Heilige Seelenlust (1657), the same year as his epigram collection Der Cherubinische Wandersmann.

The English versions here are Catherine Winkworth's in Lyra Germanica (1855).