MARTINO da COCHEM. — Capuchin, born at Cochem (Rhineland) on 13 December 1634, died at Vaghkusen (Bruchsal) on 10 September 1712. Lecturer in philosophy at Mainz (1664–68), visitor in the archdiocese of Mainz (1682–85) and in that of Trier (1698–1700), indefatigable throughout his long life in popular and catechetical preaching, in his homeland, Tyrol, Austria, and Bohemia.
He contributed effectively to the dissemination and nourishment of the people’s religious instruction and piety through some seventy books and pamphlets, many of them widely circulated and translated. He began the series with a catechism, Kinderlehr-Büchlein (Cologne 1666), following the example of Bellarmine; much better known and more important from a literary standpoint was Das Leben Christi (Frankfurt 1677; 4th ed., Das grosse Leben Christi, 2 vols., ibid. 1680; Das kleine Leben Christi, ibid. 1683); in Latin and German he compiled an exposition of the Mass, Messbuch (ibid. 1702); he collected facts, examples, and legends for instructional purposes in Das auserlesene History-Buch (Dillingen 1687), and, drawing on the Annals of Baronius, in Kirchliche Historien (ibid. 1694). Among his many books of prayers, hymns, and devotional exercises, for the sick, soldiers, etc., Unerschätzliches Büchlein von Gott (Mainz 1708) is distinguished by its theological content.
Ilatino da Milano