MANDE, HENRICUS. - Ascetical writer, b. at Dordrecht (Holland) about 1360; d. at Beverwijk about 1430. Official secretary at the court of Guglielmo IV, count of Holland, moved by the sermons
of Gerardo Groote (about 1375, v.), he felt called to a more perfect life, but resolved upon it only after repeated apparitions of the suffering Saviour.
He attached himself to the Brethren of the Common Life at Deventer, then entered the Congregation of Windesheim as a simple «redditus», that is, as a layman with all the privileges and duties of the choir priests. There he came to know Johannes Vos de Heusden, Gerlach Peters, and other eminent figures of the «Devotio moderna» (v.), and withdrew into the solitude of prayer, where, according to the chronicler J. Busch, he received frequent heavenly visits. His continual sufferings prepared him to understand s. Lydwina of Schiedam, whom he went to visit. Advanced in years, he went to Beverwijk to assist in the foundation of the monastery of Syon, and died there.
M.’s chief occupation consisted in illuminating manuscripts, but he also devoted himself to composing ascetical and mystical writings, which, however, are for the most part compilations of extracts from various authors whom he does not cite, such as Hadewijch, Ruysbroek, and others; he translated Rodolphus de Bilraco or Biberach (De septem itineribus aeternitatis), Hugo de Balma (Mystica theologia), the Epistola Processus, etc. His merit, therefore, lay in rendering accessible in the vernacular treatises that would otherwise have been inaccessible.