Figure · 1496

Menno Simons

Menno Simons (c. 1496–1561), a Catholic priest from Friesland who joined the Anabaptist movement in 1536, after breaking with Rome. He spent the rest of his life travelling and writing in secret, gathering scattered Anabaptists in the Netherlands and northern Germany around a peaceful, disciplined church life. His followers came to be called Mennonites, and his writings remain central to that tradition.