Fr. Irénée Hausherr SJ, an Alsatian Jesuit and a recognized scholar of Eastern Christian spirituality, was a pioneer in the 1920s and 1930s at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, contributing to the establishment of this field as an autonomous discipline. He explored key themes of asceticism and mysticism, with particular attention to prayer, spiritual fatherhood, and hesychasm in the Greek Fathers and Byzantine authors, dedicating his research to representative figures of the patristic tradition.
The present contribution offers a selection of texts from his diaries, written during the Second World War and the years immediately following. These pages reveal the concrete conditions of his life, marked by material deprivation, daily difficulties, health problems, and lack of books and study materials, together with experiences of misunderstanding and tensions in both pastoral and academic contexts.
Despite these circumstances, the notes show a constant inner attitude of gratitude, serenity, and trust in Providence. Physical and spiritual suffering becomes a place of maturation, while characteristic traits such as humility, obedience, and a progressive abandonment to God clearly emerge.
In continuity with the patristic tradition, the diaries testify to the profound unity between spiritual life and concrete experience, showing how in Hausherr theological reflection and personal experience are integrated into a coherent path of Christian life.
