Jan van Ruysbroeck

(c. 1293 - 1381)

Born near Brussels, Jan van Ruysbroeck went to live with his uncle, a canon at the church of Saint Gudula, around the age of eleven. Ruysbroeck was ordained in 1317 and spent the next twenty-six years at the church, leaving in 1343 to establish an Augustinian monastery called Groenendaal Priory. In his fifteenth-century biography of Ruysbroeck, the Dutch canon Henricus Pomerius described him as “composed and quiet, dressed poorly, but dignified in his bearing. He walked the streets alone…he enjoyed the rest of contemplation more than outward activities.”