DERESER, JOHANN ANTON. - Discalced Carmelite theologian and exegete (under the name of Taddeo di S. Adamo), b. 3 February 1757 at Fahr a. Nain (Franconia), d. at Breslavia on 16 June 1827. Ordained priest in 1780, he was professor in the Catholic faculty of the University of Heidelberg; then, in 1783, professor of Greek language and New Testament exegesis at the University of Bonn; subsequently, in 1791, rector of the major seminary and preacher in the cathedral of Strasburgo. Sentenced to death in 1794 for having refused to take the oath on the civil constitution of the French clergy, after a few months of imprisonment he returned (1799) to teach at the University of Heidelberg. From 1802 parish priest at Karlsruhe, and in 1815 professor of dogmatic theology and exegesis at the University of Breslavia. He was very learned, but greatly infected by rationalistic doctrines.
D. continued the German translation of Holy Scripture begun by D. Brentano (Francoforte 1800-10); he translated the breviary into German, under the title: Erbauungsbuch für katholische Christen, 4 vols. (Augusta 1792, Heilbronn 1820); he also wrote: Commentaria biblica in effatum Christi. « Tu es Petrus » (Bonn 1790; placed on the Index, decree of 5 February 1790); Necessitas linguarum orientalium ad S. Scriptorum intelligendum (Colonia 1783), and many other works of an exegetical character.