Johannes Jorgensen (1866 - 1956)

Jens Johannes Jørgensen (6 November 1866 in Svendborg – 29 May 1956) was a Danish writer, best known for his biographies of Catholic saints. Johannes Jørgensen was born in 1866 in Svendborg, on the island of Funen. He was born into a seafaring family who were practicing Lutherans but no more than that. As a student in Copenhagen, he embarked on a search for truth. He briefly flirted with theosophy, but his soul soon revolted against it. He was fascinated by the Russian nihilists and by Georg Brandes who boasted of dispelling "the darkness of Christianity." He led a life of pleasure and married, but his happiness did not last. New voices announcing spiritual values were then being heard in Denmark. Jørgensen read Joris-Karl Huysmans, Maurice Maeterlinck and others. The sense of mystery awoke in him. He broke with Georg Brandes and his school, which would later cause his ruin.