COELDE (Kolde), Theodorich (Dederich, Dierich, Dietrich and Dith). — Preacher, ascetical writer and author of hymns, born c. 1435 at Münster, died at Louvain on 11 Dec. 1515, known as Dietrich von Münster or von Osnabrück, the place of origin of his family. He was one of the most famous and effective popular preachers of his time.
He first studied at Cologne, then, after a brief stay among the Augustinian Hermits, in 1453 he entered the Observant Friars Minor, becoming one of the most zealous reformers of the Order in the Rhine province and the Low Countries, where he distinguished himself as an apostle of charity, especially by assisting the plague-stricken in Brussels in 1489. He was a spiritual director, for whom he wrote devotional works. His reputation for holiness was so great that his beatification was considered. Various spiritual booklets of his were printed, but one slim volume of his, very rare, deserves special mention: Christenspiegel (1st ed., 1745), regarded as the first catechism in the German language. Moufang reproduced it at the head of his collection of 16th-century German catechisms under the title Ein fruchtbar Spiegel, oder Handbüchelichen der Christenmenschen von Bruder Dederich von Münster.