John of Bridlington

Church window with a representation of John (right) in the All Saints Church in Thwing

John Twenge (John of Bridlington) , known (* around 1320 in Thwing near Bridlington in what is now the East Riding of Yorkshire , †  1379 in Bridlington) was prior of the Augustinian priory of Bridlington Priory , who became known for his mystical-ecstatic experiences. He was 1401 by Boniface IX. canonized and is the last Englishman to receive this honor before the Reformation . His feast day is October 21.

Life

Even in his early youth, John studied the writings of Richard Rolles (1300–1349), the most important English mystic. At the age of 14, John took his religious vows in the Augustinian Priory in Bridlington, which he left two years later for a two-year study at Oxford . Returning to Bridlington, he was first precentor , then almsman, and later cellerar . When the prior died in 1360, he was chosen as his successor, but he refused, so that the community chose another brother as his successor, who however died of the plague a year later . After that, John saw it as his duty not to defy office again and was elected prior in 1362.

After the Reformation, only the nave of the former priory in Bridlington has survived; the towers are of later date.

Little is known of his work as prior. No writings have survived from him and he did not take part in public life. At a time when the rules of monastic life were increasingly disregarded and abbots or priests lived a comparatively stately life in separate residential quarters, John limited himself to a simple way of life, in which obedience and prayer were in the foreground. As prior he did not enjoy any special privileges, but neither did he undergo excessive asceticism. He slept with the other brothers in the dormitory in the bed that had once been assigned to him as a novice , and ate the same food as his brothers. When asked why he had not joined a stricter order, he replied that all the rules approved by the Church lead to perfection and that he had not yet succeeded in adhering to the main features of his own rule. Here he largely followed the lessons of the work Incendium Amoris by the hermit and mystic Richard Rolle, who turned away from medieval exaggerations in his asceticism and sought a balanced path. John used the Gospel according to John as a further model . He died of the plague in 1379.

canonization

John enjoyed an outstanding reputation that stayed alive even after his death. After the unsuccessful efforts to canonize the English Robert Grosseteste , John Dalderby and Robert Winchelsey , Alexander Neville , the then Archbishop of York , saw a new opportunity for an English saint and initiated the process of canonization from 1386. The first records of John's life and his miracles go back to Margery Kempe , who in particular asked John's confessor, William Sleightholm, about this. Canonization took place in 1401 by Boniface IX. Subsequently, in 1409, the prior of Bridlington was granted the privilege of wearing the miter .

reception

Representation of John in the purgatory of St. Patrick, drawing from the 15th century manuscript Royal 17 B xliii

In honor of John, a shrine for his bones was built behind the high altar in the priory church . The memory of John achieved special significance when Henry V attributed the victory at the Battle of Azincourt on October 25, 1415 to the assistance of the Yorkshire Saints John of Beverley and John of Bridlington. In Dale Augustinian Abbey, John was depicted in a stained glass window made during the 15th century, which was later moved to Morley Church after the abbey was destroyed.

In the text The Vision of William of Stranton , written a few decades after his death , John guides the protagonist through the purgatory of St. Patrick and serves as a speaker who laments the numerous sins of the clergy in the Church and the Order.

literature

• David Knowles : The Religious Orders in England . tape 2 . Cambridge University Press, 1955, ISBN 0-521-29567-X .
• RB Dobson: John of Bridlington . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 5, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-7608-8905-0 , Sp. 617 f.
• David Farmer: Oxford Dictionary of Saints . Oxford University Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-19-860949-0 , pp. 279 .

Web links

Commons : John Twenge  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ See Knowles, p. 117 ff.
2. ↑ See Dobson, Col. 617, and Knowles, p. 119.
3. ↑ See Farmer.
4. ↑ See Dobson; for life dates and meaning cf. W. Riehle: Rolle, Richard . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 7, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 , Sp. 965 f.
5. ↑ See Dobson, Col. 617.
6. ↑ See Knowles, p. 117.
7. ↑ See Deanesly, Margaret: The Incendium amoris of Richard Rolle of Hampole . Manchester University Press, 1915, pp. 47 ( archive.org ).
8. ↑ See Knowles, p. 118, and Dobson, Col. 617
9. ↑ Bishop of Lincoln , † 1320, see EB Fryde et al (Ed.): Handbook of British Chronology . Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-521-56350-X , pp. 255 .
10. ^ Archbishop of Canterbury , † 1313, see JH Denton: Winchelsey, Robert . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 9, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-89659-909-7 , Sp. 225.
11. ↑ consecrated June 4, 1374, † 1392, see EB Fryde et al (Ed.): Handbook of British Chronology . Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-521-56350-X , pp. 282 .
12. ↑ See Knowles, p. 118.
13. ↑ ^{a b} See David Knowles: Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales . Longman, 1971, ISBN 0-582-11230-3 , pp. 149 .
14. ↑ See Farmer.
15. ↑ See Robert Easting: The English Tradition . From: The Medieval Pilgrimage to St Patrick's Purgatory Lough Derg and the European Tradition . Edited by Michael Haren and Yolande de Pontfarcy, Clogher Historical Society, Enniskillen 1988, ISBN 0-949012-05-X , pp. 58-82.