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Document Details : Title: John of Ruusbroec Subtitle: Mystic and Theologian in the Quiet of Groenendaal Author(s): UYTTENHOVE, Lieve Journal: Ons Geestelijk Erf Volume: 88 Issue: 1 Date: 2017 Pages: 3-34 DOI: 10.2143/OGE.88.1.3248512 Abstract : Many scholars hold the view that John of Ruusbroec and his companions, upon moving from Brussels to Groenendaal in 1343, lived there initially as hermits. Such a viewpoint however, fails to take adequate account of the two extant testimonies from the fourthteenth and fifteenth centuries relating to Ruusbroec’s life, i.e. Gerard of Saintes’ Prologue (c. 1360) and Henricus Pomerius’ De origine monasterii Viridisvallis (c. 1414-1420). This article addresses the issue of Ruusbroec’s early years in Groenendaal by attending closely to these two sources. Specifically it relates them to the works of later authors in order to reveal previously misunderstood references to ‘hermitage’ and ‘hermit’s hut’ and misunderstood connections between the move to Groenendaal and the priestly life being lived in Brussels. I argue that in the early period in Groenendaal, Ruusbroec and companions remained secular priests and furthermore, for Ruusbroec the solitude of the Sonian Forest facilitated not an eremitical life but a life of contemplation, the fruits of which he shared with others through his rich and profound writings. In conclusion, this article, by attending closely to the extant sources, moves away from the hypothesis of the ‘hermit’ Ruusbroec, and sheds a light on Ruusbroec as mystic and theologian. |
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