Today we commemorate Johannes von Staupitz, Luther’s Father Confessor. Vicar-General of the Augustinian order in Germany, Johannes von Staupitz was born in Saxony. Called in 1503, by Frederick the Wise, to serve as dean of the theological faculty at the newly established University of Wittenberg, von Staupitz would go on to encourage Luther to obtain his doctorate in theology and to appoint Luther to be his successor as professor of Bible at Wittenberg. It was von Staupitz who counseled Luther early on in Luther’s life, when Luther was an Augustinian monk struggling with the idea of God’s grace, to focus not upon himself but upon Christ.