Whenever Blessed John felt the Spirit of God full upon him, even the
solitude of the cloister was not sufficiently retired for the intimacy of
the divine union. He would wander away into the depths of the forest
surrounding the monastery, there to abandon himself to the action of the
Holy Ghost undisturbed. On these occasions also he was wont to take with
him a stylus and a wax tablet, in order to jot down such thoughts and
lights as he was moved to preserve in writing. Of these notes a fair copy
was made on his return to the Priory. Towards the end of his days, when
his sight was failing and otherwise the effort of making these notes was
too much for him, one of the Canons always accompanied him into the
forest to write down at his dictation whatever he was moved to
communicate. Sometimes days or whole weeks would pass, and for want of
inspiration not a line nor a word would be added to the treatise in hand.
But when again the Spirit breathed, he continued from the very sentence
or phrase where he had paused, just as if there had been no interval
between.
One day the Saint had retired as usual into the forest, and the Brethren,
knowing his occupation, respected his privacy. But when hours passed and
there was no sign of his return, they became alarmed and set out to scour
the woods in search of him. One of the Canons was especially intimate
with the Prior and loved him most tenderly. Perhaps his anxiety urged him
ahead of the rest. In a glade of the forest his eye lighted upon a
wondrous scene. He perceived a tree as it were in flames. On nearer
approach he discovered that it was in fact encircled with fire. And under
the tree, in the midst of the mysterious conflagration, John Ruysbroeck
was seated, manifestly rapt in ecstasy.
The memory of this miracle was never lost in the Community. For
generations the tree was known and venerated as _Ruysbroeck's Tree_. At
the close of the fifteenth century the Prior, James van Dynter, planted a
lime-tree in the same place, which received the respect shown hitherto to
the original, which presumably had died down. When in 1577 the Canons
were obliged to abandon Groenendael on account of the vexations of the
religious wars, it is said that this tree withered away until only its
bark was left; but when the Community returned in 1607, it revived and
flourished again.
This episode also has fixed the traditional representation of Blessed
John Ruysbroeck. He is usually pictured seated under a tree, a stylus in
his hand and a wax tablet resting on his knee, while Saint and tree alike
are encircled in brilliant rays of celestial light.