HENRICUS MANDE. - Ascetic writer, born in Dordrecht (Holland) c. 1360, died at Beverwijk c. 1430. Official secretary at the court of William IV, Count of Holland, he was moved by the preaching of Gerard Groote (c. 1375, q.v.) to a more perfect life, but only decided upon it after repeated apparitions of the suffering Saviour.
He joined 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 became acquainted with Johannes Vos de Heusden, Gerlach Peters, and other luminaries of the *Devotio moderna* (q.v.) and lived in the solitude of prayer, where, according to the chronicler J. Busch, he frequently received celestial visitations. His continual sufferings enabled him to understand St. Lydwina of Schiedam, whom he went to visit. In his old age he went to Beverwijk to assist in the foundation of the monastery of Syon, where he died.
Mande’s principal occupation was the illumination of manuscripts, but he also composed ascetical and mystical writings, most of which are compilations of extracts from various authors whom he does not cite, such as Hadewijch, Ruysbroeck, and others; he translated Rudolphus of Biberach (*De septem itineribus aeternitatis*), Hugh of Balma (*Mystica theologia*), the *Epistola Processus*, etc. His merit therefore lay in popularizing treatises otherwise inaccessible.