![[Blessed John Ruysbroeck]](http://saints.sqpn.com/saintj2c.jpg "jpg illustration Blessed John Ruysbroeck, date unknown, artist unknown; swiped off the Wikipedia web site")
Also known as
- John Ruysbroeck
- Jan van Ruusbroec
- John the Admirable Doctor
- John the Divine Doctor
- Ruysbroeck the Admirable
Profile
Nothing is known of John’s father, but history remembers his mother as a very pious woman who eventually entered a convent. At age eleven John moved in with and was educated by his uncle, Father John Hinckaert at Saint Gudule’s, Brussels, Belgium. Ordained in 1317. Served as chaplain at Saint Gudule’s for 26 years.
In response to pamphlets teaching heresy, John began to write his own, primarily on false mysticism being taught. None of these writings have survived.
In 1343, John and his uncle retired to a hermitage in Groenendael. His reputation for wisdom and holiness began to spread, and the hermitage attracted like-minded men. The group founded a formal community of Augustinian canons regular on 13 March 1349 with John as prior. Many people came for spiritual guidance by the canons, and especially from John. He led a life of extreme austerity, became famous as a sublime contemplative and skilled director of souls. As the Spirit moved him, he resumed writing. Noted as the greatest of the Flemish mystical writers.
Born
Died
- 2 December 1381 at Groenendael of natural causes
- relics translated to Saint Gudule’s, Brussels, Belgium in 1783, but were lost or destroyed during the French Revolution
- 1 December 1908 by Pope Pius X
- in canonical habit, seated in the forest with his writing tablet on his knee, rapt in ecstasy and enveloped in flames, which encircle without consuming the tree under which he is resting
Additional Information
- Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
- Catholic Encyclopedia
- Christian Classics Ethereal Library
- Ecole Glossary
- New Catholic Dictionary
- New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge
- One Year Book of Saints
- Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
- Wikipedia
Works
- The Sparkling Stone
- The Book of Supreme Truth
- The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
- The Spiritual Tabernacle
- The Twelve Points of True Faith
- The Book of the Four Temptations
- The Kingdom of God’s Lovers
- The Mirror of Eternal Salvation
- The Seven Cloisters
- The Seven Degrees of Love
- The Twelve Beguines
Readings
Where I assert that we are one in God, I must be understood in this sense that we are one in love. - Blessed John
MLA Citation