Hugo von Sankt Viktor Biography

Hugh of Saint-Victor was a leading scholastic theologian who initiated the tradition of mysticism that made the school of Saint-Victor in Paris famous throughout the 12th century. His mystical treatises, strongly influenced by Saint Augustine of Hippo, blended practical teachings on the contemplative life with the theoretical writings of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Hugh's somewhat innovative style of exegesis made an important contribution to the development of natural theology. He based his arguments for God's existence on external and internal experience and added a teleological proof originating from the facts of experience.