Thomas à Kempis

Thomas à Kempis was a German-Dutch canon regular of the Augustinians in the Congregation of Windesheim, shaped by the Modern Devotion movement. He entered the monastery of Mount Saint Agnes near Zwolle in 1406 and became its sub-prior in 1429, spending a long life copying manuscripts and instructing novices. He is remembered almost entirely for one book, The Imitation of Christ, written c. 1418–1427 — a work Thomas More reportedly called one of the three everybody ought to own.