RUUSBROEC (OR RUYSBROECK), JAN VAN

(1293-1381)

The writer Jan van Ruusbroec was born at Ruysbroeck, near Brussels, in 1293. He came to the city in 1304 and was ordained a priest about 1317. He served 25 years as vicar at the collegiate church ofSaints-Michel-et-Guduleand then retired to the solitude of theForêt de Soignesat Groenendael in April 1343. Taking the habit of an Augus-tinian monk, he devoted himself to prayer and writing in becoming one of the great mystical authors of the Middle Ages. Ruusbroec died at the monastery at Groenendael on 2 December 1381. Written in the Brussels dialect, 11 of his treatises and seven of his letters survive.