Abraham a Sancta Clara, his real name actually is Johann Ulrich Megerle, was born on July 2, 1644 at Kreenheinstetten Meßkirch/Baden.
Abraham a Sancta Clara was the youngest of eight children of a village innkeeper and attended grammar school in Meßkirch and the Jesuit high school in Ingolstadt.
Abraham a Sancta Clara received further training with the Benedictines in Salzburg. In 1662 Abraham a Sancta Clara joined the Order of the Discalced Augustinians in Vienna.
After his study years in Prague and Ferrara, Abraham a Sancta Clara was ordained priest in 1666.
In 1670 Abraham a Sancta Clara was active as pilgrimage preacher in Maria-Stern in Taxa (Bavaria) and was called to Vienna in 1672. He was appointed sub-prior in 1677, and was called to the court of Emperor Leopold I as court preacher.
Between the years 1680 and 1683 Abraham a Sancta Clara was active as prior in the Augustinian monastery of Maria-Brunn near Vienna, until 1688 he was pulpit orator in Graz.
Abraham a Sancta Clara traveled to Rome three times for religious matters, he held several high offices of the province of the order and eventually returned to Vienna in 1695.
During the plague of 1679 and the Turkish siege in 1683, Abraham a Sancta Clara made a name for himself for his great personal commitment to the people. His sermons were lively and popular with all social classes, numerous individual prints of the sermons circulated as pamphlets.
Abraham a Sancta Clara died in Vienna on 01 February, 1709.