The two catechisms contained in Volume 9 are perhaps the greatest of the Catholic Reformation period, the work of the great catechist and doctor of the Church, St. PeterCanisius.
After successfully establishing the first Jesuit house in Germany (despite the increasingly heretical teachings of the local archbishop), the emperor Ferdinand I besought Canisius to create a catechism that could serve the needs of both priests and laity, with the same gentle charity and precision that marked all of Canisiusï 1/2ï 1/2ï 1/2 preaching and teaching in an age of great confusion and distress. The result of the Saintï 1/2ï 1/2ï 1/2s efforts was a catechism in three different iterations: the landmark Summa Doctrina Christianae or "Large Catechism" (1555), whichwas a compendious and impressively annotated work intended for priests and scholars; the tiny and less popular 1556 synopsis known as Catechismus Minimus; and finally, the Catechismus Minor or "Small Catechism" (1558), which b
