Of the death of the beloved Father John Ummen, the first Founder of the
Monastery of Mount St. Agnes.
In the year 1420, in the evening of the 1st day of September, the Feast
of St. AEgidius the Abbot, died that holy and faithful servant of Christ,
John Reghelant, formerly a most beloved disciple of Gerard Groote, whose
discourses he used to hear. He was born of honest parents, and for
several years was educated in Zwolle; but while he was yet a youth he was
diseased in the eyes, and God allowed him to fall into darkness, and he
continued blind to the end of his life; but yet the less he could see the
outer world, the more brightly did the grace of God illumine him
inwardly. His mother, whose name was Regheland, was devoted to God, and
often went on long journeys to visit the shrines of Saints in company
with her blind son, whom she would lead by the hand, taking him with her
to hear sermons in church, and leading him onward to every good thing.
So when the venerable Master, Gerard Groote, was preaching in Zwolle, and
through God's inspiration was bringing compunction to many, the Lord did
open the heart of this His servant also, and did inflame him, wherefore
he began to love Gerard much, and often sought to be instructed by the
doctrine of so great a man. For this cause he left wandering about the
world and sought to serve God in quietness, also he exhorted all that
came to him to despise earthly desires, and take hold on that new life in
Christ which Gerard taught by his holy manner of living.
Therefore he took to him certain men that were well disposed, and with
them he began to live the Common Life in Zwolle, but afterward they took
up their abode upon Mount Nemel (which is now called Mount St. Agnes),
because they wished to dwell outside the tumult of the world. Here they
gathered a larger company, the which he governed for many years with
faithful devotion, assisted by divers helpers, until the monastery was
founded, for he did not fear the many hindrances that met him. But at
length when the monastery was builded, and a Prior instituted in the
canonical manner, John, being filled with brotherly love, and led by a
yet fuller zeal for souls, took with him certain laymen of ripe age and
began to form a new congregation in honour of the Holy Trinity, in the
field of St. John, near Vollenhoe, which congregation, by the favour of
God, he did enlarge greatly. And when in the process of time the number
of the Brothers was multiplied, he and many others took the habit of the
Tertiaries, and he continued to his life's end to be the humble servant
of the Brothers and their first Rector. He was one of the first and
original disciples of Gerard Groote, and had many spiritual discourses
with him, for it was from Gerard that he learned the way of an holy life,
and he submitted himself and his little ones fully to Gerard's counsel
and discretion. Being prevented in due season by God's grace, Father
John was devout, and is worthy of remembrance, for that going on day by
day he reached forward continually to the things that are before, being a
notable lover of poverty, one that kept lowliness and loved sobriety. He
was the very beauty of purity, a pattern of simplicity, a strong upholder
of discipline, an enemy of sin, a light of virtue, an ensample of
devotion, strong in faith, long suffering in hope, prodigal in charity,
and one that did convert many from the vanity of the world. A few things
concerning him are written in the beginning of this book.
So being wearied by his many years, when the day of his release from
captivity was nigh, and he was dwelling in the house of the Sisters at
Almelo, he fell sick; and having fulfilled seventy years of life, he fell
asleep in the Lord and was buried in the chapel of the Sisterhood there.
After his happy departure, John of Resa, a devout priest, was chosen as
the second minister of the House of St. John, and he sought and obtained
for that House certain privileges that were needful, and also the
consecration of the burial-ground, which things were granted by the
Venerable Frederic, Lord Bishop of Utrecht. After him Christian, a
native of Zeeland, and one that had made his profession, was chosen as
priest to that House, and was the third to administer and rule the same.