Numerous pilgrims now wended their way to visit Ruysbroeck's tomb.
Ex-votos were suspended there in acknowledgment of favours received. His
picture also was honoured in various churches. And each year on the
Monday following Trinity Sunday the Chapter of St. Gudule's came over to
Groenendael to assist the Canons at a Mass sung in his honour. In a word,
on all sides the holy Prior was regarded and, as far as possible, treated
as a Saint in glory.
Yielding to representations and entreaties from many quarters, James
Roonen, Archbishop of Mechlin, ordered another translation of the
remains, November 1622. This was duly performed with all the prescribed
formalities. The skeleton was found entire. The bones were carefully
taken and reverently washed and then placed in a new reliquary. The water
used in this cleansing emitted a delicious odour, and it was afterwards
instrumental in effecting many miraculous cures. The Infanta Isabella of
Spain laid the foundation stone of a chapel to be erected at her expense
near _Ruysbroeck's Tree_ as a suitable shrine for the relics. She also
provided a magnificent sarcophagus. As this chapel was outside the
monastic enclosure, ladies were now able to pay their devotions at
Ruysbroeck's tomb itself, whereas hitherto they had been able to
reverence the relics only from a distance.
So far, however, no authoritative recognition of the heroic virtues of
John Ruysbroeck had come from Rome. In 1624 the Archbishop commissioned
the learned Albert le Mire to draw up the necessary preliminary documents
to be submitted to the Sacred Congregation. These were approved, and
three commissioners were appointed to Initiate the apostolic process, so
called. Their labours were completed by 1627. Then, on account of the
wars and other troubles which afflicted the Low Countries at the time,
the Cause was suspended.
When the French overran the Netherlands in 1667, to prevent profanation
of the holy relics, they were carried to a place of greater safety in
Brussels; they were restored again in 1670. In 1783 the Priory itself
shared the fate of so many other Religious Houses, and was suppressed by
the Emperor Joseph II.; whereupon the relics were again transferred to
Brussels and laid to rest in a side-chapel of St. Gudule's.
Another attempt was then made by the Chapter of St. Gudule's to obtain
from Rome an authorised Office and Mass in honour of John Ruysbroeck. The
petition was favourably received; but once more there was a violent
interruption, this time from the upheaval of the French Revolution.
St. Gudule's was sacked by the _sans-culottes_ in 1793, and the reliquary
of Ruysbroeck was desecrated. It is said, however, that the relics were
not actually dispersed, and that they were afterwards sealed up again by
a Notary named Neuwens; but unhappily at the present day all trace of
them has disappeared.
Finally, in 1885, the late Cardinal Goosens, Archbishop of Mechlin,
approached the Sacred Congregation once more, and a tribunal was
appointed to examine into the Cause, February 8, 1900. This was brought
to a happy issue in 1908 by a Decree of the Sacred Congregation, dated
December 1st, and approved by His Holiness, Pius X., December 9,
confirming the cultus "shown from time immemorial to the Venerable
Servant of God, John Ruysbroeck, Canon Regular, called the Blessed."
Later, August 24, 1909, the Congregation granted and approved an Office
and Mass of Blessed John Ruysbroeck for the Mechlin clergy. The privilege
of this Office and Mass has also been extended to the Canons Regular of
the Lateran, who are the lineal representatives of the Canons of
Groenendael and Windesheim, and therefore in a special sense the children
of Blessed John.
For the moment there may seem to be but little in common between this
Mediaeval Mystic and the bustling modern world, so little as to suggest
the thought that Blessed Ruysbroeck can have no message to deliver to our
day. On the contrary, the Solitary of the Forest of Soignes stands for a
profound truth, oblivion of which is rendering Society sick unto death
to-day. John Ruysbroeck preaches to the world its utter need of God.
For the Catholic he enforces his lesson in a special manner. Unlike false
mystics, who invariably pretend to dispense themselves and their
adherents from the chief normal means of grace, namely the Sacraments,
Ruysbroeck insists upon frequent recourse to the Sacraments, but more
especially to the Blessed Eucharist, as the speediest and most
efficacious means of bringing each soul into true union with God. Our
present Holy Father, desirous and ambitious of "restoring all things in
Christ," has pointed to the same divine remedy for the renewal of our
souls. May there not be seen in this a providential reason wherefore the
solemn beatification of this holy Religious has been delayed six
centuries, to be reserved to our own days?
The proper prayers of our Saint's Mass beautifully summarise the lessons
of his life as follows: