Part 5

And here we may note that while it is customary with some to speak of Ruysbroeck as illiterate, this term must be taken in a strictly limited sense. Possibly, he could not have composed in fluent and elegant Latin: he was not a classical scholar; but certainly the Latin of the Bible and the Fathers was quite familiar to him. His writings, moreover, display an intimate knowledge of the Scriptures, the Fathers, theology, liturgy, apologetics. The natural science of the day was not unknown, as witness his applications from astronomy, and, it must be confessed, from astrology. With St. Denys the Areopagyte he shows himself very intimate, and his pages contain whole passages borrowed or adapted from St. Anselm, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, and especially St. Augustin. Nearer his own days St. Bernard and Hugh of St. Victor seem to have influenced him very considerably.

Experts in Old Flemish assure us that his style is most chaste, his language vigorous and clear. He was in truth a poet. When carried away by the beauty or sublimity of his subject, he indulges in a wealth of imagery, comparison, metaphor, astounding at times in boldness and originality. Occasionally even he lapsed into verse; but on the whole his verse is of less beauty and strength than his prose, as he himself seems to have been aware. On the other hand, his prose, after the manner of St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, the two Victors, and later Thomas a Kempis, frequently gives evidence of deliberate rhythm and rhyme. In a word, far from being illiterate in the strict sense of the word, Blessed John was well acquainted with all the rules and arts of rhetoric; he knew how to employ them; and for all the sublimity of his discourse he did not disdain the use of these aids to interest and persuasion. Finally, it is to be noted that we are expressly informed by contemporaries of Ruysbroeck that he wrote by preference in the vulgar tongue, the more readily and effectively to meet and refute the erroneous doctrines published in the language of the people by the false mystics of his day.

XIV

Last Days

Of the life of our Saint there remains little to be told save the record of the last days and the after glory. He had attained the good old age of eighty-eight, when his mother appeared in a vision to warn him to make ready for the approaching end. It must seem to us there was little need for such warning to one whose whole life had been one long preparation for the coming of the Spouse! He was taken with dysentery, accompanied by fever, and for his greater comfort, and that his lifelong friend van Coudenberg might be at hand to console and assist him, they put him to bed in the Provost's chamber. But the humble Prior besought them to treat him as any of the lowliest brethren and to bear him to the common infirmary. This was accordingly done. There he lay for a fortnight, gradually wasting away with the burning fever, and still more, doubtless, with his burning desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ, for he was constantly heard murmuring such ejaculations as that of the Psalmist, _Sicut desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarum_. He received all the last rites, and the end came in the greatest peace, while his weeping brethren prayed around him, on the Octave day of St. Catherine, V.M., December 2, 1381, in the eighty-eighth year of his age, the sixty-fourth of his priesthood.

That same night the Dean of Diest, watching by the holy remains, seemed to behold our Saint, clad in the priestly vestments and all radiant with glory, ascend the altar steps as if to celebrate the sacred mysteries. The Dean had always held Ruysbroeck in the deepest veneration and, having some skill in medicine, he had come over to Groenendael on hearing of the Prior's illness to see whether he could administer any relief. His charity was rewarded by the edifying sight of his happy death, and by this consoling vision after.

And, as the Venerable a Kempis informs us, "God also revealed to Gerard [Groote] the death of this most beloved Father, which revelation he made manifest in the hearing of many of the citizens by the tolling of the bells; and more privately he made known to certain of his friends that the soul of the Prior, after but one hour of Purgatory, had passed to the glory of Heaven." We may note here that a Kempis himself was a child of three years when Ruysbroeck was called to his reward. Gerard Groote followed his friend and spiritual father to the grave three years later.

The Groenendael Canons offered the holy Sacrifice and all the wonted suffrages for their departed Prior's repose, but they prayed with the conviction that they needed his impetration rather than he theirs. They were all eager to possess themselves of any little thing which had been his. Some cut off locks of his hair, and one managed to secure a tooth! Appropriately enough, this relic later cured a Mechlin lady of a severe attack of toothache. However, in all simplicity the Brethren laid Blessed John to rest in the little chapel which his own hands had helped to raise.

Five years later his saintly associate, the Provost Francis van Coudenberg, rejoined him beyond the grave. The Bishop of Cambrai, John T'Serclaes, came to assist at the obsequies. During his visit he heard so much of the heroic virtues of the late Prior that he ordered an exhumation of Ruysbroeck's body with a view to a more honourable burial by the side of the Provost in the new church, which had now replaced the little chapel. They were all filled with awe and wonder to find the entire body, save only the tip of the nose, incorrupt, and the priestly vestments intact. Also a most sweet odour exhaled from the holy remains. To satisfy the devotion of the people, the Bishop commanded that the body should be exposed to their veneration for three days. On the third day, amid a vast concourse of the faithful, Ruysbroeck was laid to rest by the side and in the tomb of his lifelong friend van Coudenberg. Over the sepulchre was placed the following simple inscription:

_Hic jacet translatus Devotus Pater D. Joannes de Ruysbroeck I. Prior hujus monasterii Qui obiit anno Domini MCCCLXXXI II. Die Decembris_

"Here lies transferred the Devout Father, Dom John of Ruysbroeck, First Prior of this cloister, who departed in the year of the Lord 1381, December 2."

XV

The Cultus of Blessed John Ruysbroeck

Numerous pilgrims now wended their way to visit Ruysbroeck's tomb. Ex-votos were suspended there in acknowledgment of favours received. His picture also was honoured in various churches. And each year on the Monday following Trinity Sunday the Chapter of St. Gudule's came over to Groenendael to assist the Canons at a Mass sung in his honour. In a word, on all sides the holy Prior was regarded and, as far as possible, treated as a Saint in glory.

Yielding to representations and entreaties from many quarters, James Roonen, Archbishop of Mechlin, ordered another translation of the remains, November 1622. This was duly performed with all the prescribed formalities. The skeleton was found entire. The bones were carefully taken and reverently washed and then placed in a new reliquary. The water used in this cleansing emitted a delicious odour, and it was afterwards instrumental in effecting many miraculous cures. The Infanta Isabella of Spain laid the foundation stone of a chapel to be erected at her expense near _Ruysbroeck's Tree_ as a suitable shrine for the relics. She also provided a magnificent sarcophagus. As this chapel was outside the monastic enclosure, ladies were now able to pay their devotions at Ruysbroeck's tomb itself, whereas hitherto they had been able to reverence the relics only from a distance.

So far, however, no authoritative recognition of the heroic virtues of John Ruysbroeck had come from Rome. In 1624 the Archbishop commissioned the learned Albert le Mire to draw up the necessary preliminary documents to be submitted to the Sacred Congregation. These were approved, and three commissioners were appointed to Initiate the apostolic process, so called. Their labours were completed by 1627. Then, on account of the wars and other troubles which afflicted the Low Countries at the time, the Cause was suspended.

When the French overran the Netherlands in 1667, to prevent profanation of the holy relics, they were carried to a place of greater safety in Brussels; they were restored again in 1670. In 1783 the Priory itself shared the fate of so many other Religious Houses, and was suppressed by the Emperor Joseph II.; whereupon the relics were again transferred to Brussels and laid to rest in a side-chapel of St. Gudule's.

Another attempt was then made by the Chapter of St. Gudule's to obtain from Rome an authorised Office and Mass in honour of John Ruysbroeck. The petition was favourably received; but once more there was a violent interruption, this time from the upheaval of the French Revolution.

St. Gudule's was sacked by the _sans-culottes_ in 1793, and the reliquary of Ruysbroeck was desecrated. It is said, however, that the relics were not actually dispersed, and that they were afterwards sealed up again by a Notary named Neuwens; but unhappily at the present day all trace of them has disappeared.

Finally, in 1885, the late Cardinal Goosens, Archbishop of Mechlin, approached the Sacred Congregation once more, and a tribunal was appointed to examine into the Cause, February 8, 1900. This was brought to a happy issue in 1908 by a Decree of the Sacred Congregation, dated December 1st, and approved by His Holiness, Pius X., December 9, confirming the cultus "shown from time immemorial to the Venerable Servant of God, John Ruysbroeck, Canon Regular, called the Blessed." Later, August 24, 1909, the Congregation granted and approved an Office and Mass of Blessed John Ruysbroeck for the Mechlin clergy. The privilege of this Office and Mass has also been extended to the Canons Regular of the Lateran, who are the lineal representatives of the Canons of Groenendael and Windesheim, and therefore in a special sense the children of Blessed John.

For the moment there may seem to be but little in common between this Mediaeval Mystic and the bustling modern world, so little as to suggest the thought that Blessed Ruysbroeck can have no message to deliver to our day. On the contrary, the Solitary of the Forest of Soignes stands for a profound truth, oblivion of which is rendering Society sick unto death to-day. John Ruysbroeck preaches to the world its utter need of God.

For the Catholic he enforces his lesson in a special manner. Unlike false mystics, who invariably pretend to dispense themselves and their adherents from the chief normal means of grace, namely the Sacraments, Ruysbroeck insists upon frequent recourse to the Sacraments, but more especially to the Blessed Eucharist, as the speediest and most efficacious means of bringing each soul into true union with God. Our present Holy Father, desirous and ambitious of "restoring all things in Christ," has pointed to the same divine remedy for the renewal of our souls. May there not be seen in this a providential reason wherefore the solemn beatification of this holy Religious has been delayed six centuries, to be reserved to our own days?

The proper prayers of our Saint's Mass beautifully summarise the lessons of his life as follows:

Collect

God, Who didst vouchsafe to adorn Blessed John, Thy Confessor, with sublime holiness of life and with heavenly gifts, grant us, through his merits, and after his example, to despise the fleeting things of the world, and to desire only the joys of heaven.

Secret

May the intercession of Blessed John, who in offering the Sacrifice merited to overflow with heavenly delights, make us worthy, we beseech Thee, Lord, of the bread of angels.

Post-Communion

We beseech Thee, Lord, by the intercession of Blessed John, grant to us who are refreshed with the heavenly banquet, that, delivered from worldly desires, we may be ever fervent in Thy love.

Footnotes

[1]By Earle Bailie. London: Thomas Baker. 1905.

[2]_Cf._ the Polish sect of _Mariavites_, or _Mystic Priests_, under the misguidance of the woman Mary Frances, whose extravagances were condemned by Rome, September 1904, and again April 1906.

[3]Provost is the equivalent in a College of Clergy of the Abbot in a Monastery; though many Congregations of Canons Regular have borrowed the title and style of Abbot from the monastic institute.

[4]Translation by J. P. Arthur. _The Founders of the New Devotion._ Kegan Paul. 1905.

[5]Especially: _Outlines of the Life of Thomas a Kempis_. By Sir Francis Cruise. _C.T.S._ of Ireland. _Thomas a Kempis_. By the same. London: Kegan Paul. _Life of the Venerable Thomas a Kempis_. By Dom Scully. London: Washbourne. _Thomas a Kempis and the Brothers of the Common Life_. By Kettlewell. London: Kegan Paul. _Thomas a Kempis, His Age and His Book_. By De Montmorency, London: Methuen.

[6]Father Sharpe, in his recent admirable volume, _Mysticism: Its True Nature and Value_, writes thus of the mystic teaching, properly so called, of a Kempis's world-famous masterpiece: "_The Imitation of Christ_ ... probably owes much of its vast popularity to its constant recurrence to the elementary duties of religion and morality, and its insistence on the necessity of their performance as the prerequisite of the more exalted spiritual states. The 'purgative,' 'illuminative,' and 'unitive' ways are seen, so to speak, together, and are dealt with as aspects or constituents of the Christian life as a whole, to the completeness of which all three are necessary and, in different ways, of equal importance. The purely mystical passages are comparatively few and short; and the abundance of practical directions the book contains has sometimes caused its mystical character to be entirely overlooked. This disproportion, however, is quite sufficiently to be accounted for by the character of the work, which is that of a directory of spiritual life in general, and not a scientific treatise on any particular department of it. In such a book attempts at describing the indescribable phenomena of mysticism would obviously have been out of place, whereas the practical details of the lower and preliminary states admit of and require minute explanation. But the tone of the whole book is mystical, and the most commonplace duties and the most humiliating strivings with temptation are in a manner illuminated and glorified by the brilliancy of the result to which they tend. Thus, in point of fact, the higher and lower elements, the mystical and the non-mystical, the purgative, the illuminative and the unitive, are blended in actual human experience" (pp. 188, 189).

[7]The whole subject of mystic theology is excellently well treated by Rev. A. B. Sharpe, M.A., in a volume entitled _Mysticism: Its True Nature and Value_, already quoted, just published by Sands & Co. There is frequent reference to our Saint and his writings.

FINIS

Transcriber's Notes

--Silently corrected a few palpable typos.

--Moved footnotes from page footer to end of text