Jan van Ruusbroec
1293-1381 14th century
Mystical depth that refuses to stay private, writing in the common tongue so contemplation belongs to everyone, union with God that flows back out into action.
Who was Jan van Ruusbroec?
Born near Brussels around 1293, he left home as a boy to join an uncle who was a priest, and spent decades in ordinary parish ministry before withdrawing with companions to a forest hermitage called Groenendaal. There, away from the city's noise, he wrote (in Dutch, not Latin, so ordinary readers could understand) some of the most demanding maps of the soul's ascent ever produced, insisting always that the highest mystical union still sends a person back into active love and service.
In their own words
The just man serves God in his works, and rests in Him beyond all works, and this is the crown of his life.