Blessed John Ruysbroeck, surnamed the Admirable and the Divine Doctor, by common consent the greatest Mystic the Low Countries have ever produced, was born, A.D. 1293, at Ruysbroeck, a village some miles south of Brussels, lying between that city and Hal. According to the fashion of those days, especially with Religious, he was named after his birthplace, John van Ruysbroeck, or John Ruysbroeck. The Venerable à Kempis, the Latinised form of van Kempen, is a case in point; Thomas was so named after his native town, Kempen, though his patronymic was Haemerken. Of Ruysbroeck, however, we know of no other surname; neither do his biographers so much as mention his father. But like many another great servant of God, John was blessed with a good mother, a devout woman who trained her child from the cradle to walk in the paths of Christian piety and perfection. She is charged with only one fault, that she loved her son too tenderly!

Perhaps we are to understand by this that the poor woman opposed the boy’s early aspirations after a more retired life than could be found even in the peaceful shelter of his own pious home. This would also explain John’s first recorded act. At the age of eleven years he ran away from home! How many a lad before and since has torn himself away from a loving mother’s too fond embrace to quell the ardour of a restless spirit in the quest of adventure! John also was eager and dissatisfied; but the larger sphere for which he sighed was to be sought along the unaccustomed ways which lead to the sublime heights and the rarified atmosphere of mystic contemplation.

The pious truant made his way to Brussels, there to call upon an uncle of his, one John Hinckaert, a major Canon of St. Gudule’s. The son and heir of a wealthy magistrate of the city, and possessed, moreover, of a rich benefice, for many years John Hinckaert had been somewhat worldly in his ways; but one day Divine grace found him out as he was listening to a sermon, and drew him sweetly and strongly to a life of extreme simplicity and mortification. His example was soon followed by a fellow Canon, by name Francis van Coudenberg, a Master of Arts, possessed of considerable means, and a man of great repute with the people. These two agreed, for their mutual edification and support, to live together in common. Their material requirements were reduced to the barest necessaries; and the surplus of their revenue was distributed among the poor. In this devout household the lad John met with a kindly welcome; and there he found at once a home after his own heart in an atmosphere saturated with “other-worldliness” and prayer. His good uncle also took charge of his education. For four years Ruysbroeck followed the ordinary course of Humanities in the public schools of Brussels, and then, with a view to the priesthood, he devoted himself to the more congenial study of the sacred sciences.

Meanwhile the bereaved mother had discovered the place of John’s retreat and had quitted her village of Ruysbroeck to reside with him at Brussels. As, however, she was not permitted to dwell in the Presbytery, she made her abode in a Béguinage hard by. Thus she had at least the consolation of seeing her son from time to time. She must have been much comforted also for the deprivation of his company by the constant evidence of his growing sanctity. And, further, we are assured that she set herself to make profit of her sacrifice by emulating in her own person the holy life of her son John, and his saintly masters, Hinckaert and van Coudenberg.

II
As a Secular Priest in Brussels

In due course Canon Hinckaert procured for his nephew one of the lesser prebends of St. Gudule’s, and John was ordained priest in the year 1317, at the age of twenty-four. His good mother did not survive to witness this happy event in the flesh, nevertheless even beyond the grave she had good cause to rejoice therein. After her departure from this world she had often appeared to her son, lamenting her pains, beseeching his prayers, and sighing for the day when he would be able to offer for her the holy Sacrifice. And John was unceasing in his supplications. But immediately after the celebration of his first Mass, as he related to his Religious Brethren later, God granted him a vision full of consolation: when the sacred oblation was accomplished, his mother came to visit and thank him for her deliverance from Purgatory. The touching incident is well worth recording, if only to show that it was through no lack of natural affection that the child John had so unceremoniously forsaken home and mother. Moreover, of these two holy souls it was singularly true that having loved each other in life, in death they were not parted, for they were privileged often to converse together, and finally it was from his mother that Ruysbroeck learned the date of his own approaching departure.

For twenty-six years in all Blessed John lived as a secular priest in Brussels. Content with his modest chaplaincy in the Church of St. Gudule, and with his holy companions Hinckaert and van Coudenberg continuing happily in apostolic simplicity and poverty the Common Life on which he had entered a mere child, Ruysbroeck passed his days in peaceful retirement and almost uninterrupted prayer and contemplation.

A characteristic episode of this period reveals to us the man as in a flash, his mean garb, his emaciated figure, his absorbed demeanour, his utter abandonment in God. He was passing through a square of Brussels one day, silent and recollected, as was his wont, when two laymen remarked him.

“My God,” exclaimed one, “would I were as holy as that priest!”

“Nay, for my part,” returned the other, “I would not be in his shoes for all the wealth of the world. I should never know a day’s pleasure on earth.”