JOHN of HILDESHEIM. – German Carmelite of the 14th century. He studied in Paris and later held the office of prior for many years at Kassel (1361) and at Marienau (from 1369).
He was the popularizer of the legend concerning the bodies of the Magi: *De trium Regum corporibus Coloniae translatis* (Mainz 1477, translated into various languages; latest ed. Stuttgart 1925). Important is his philosophical treatise: *Speculum fontis vitae* (ms., London, Bodleian Library, cod. 1143), in which he treats, in the style of the Neoplatonists, of the emanation of the universe from God. As a historian he wrote, besides a chronicle of the Order and a collection of Carmelite legends, a *Defensorium Ordinis B.M.V. de M. Carmelo* (published in Daniel a Virgine Maria, *Speculum Carm.*, I, Antwerp 1680, pp. 145-59).