The Chronicle of the Canons Regular of Mount St. AgnesThomas, à Kempis
Religion
The Chronicle of the Canons Regular of Mount St. Agnes
Thomas, à Kempis
Augustinian Canons
In the year of the Lord 1443, on the day of St. Prisca, Virgin and
Martyr, and after midday, died our beloved Brother, John Bouman, a
Priest, who was once our Procurator. He had been sick for a long while
with a quartan fever, whereby his body was wasted, and he finished his
life with a happy agony. He was born in Zwolle, and for many years
endured labours and divers infirmities, and this saying of Christ was
often in his mouth: "In your patience ye shall possess your souls." When
I visited him at the end he said to me, "How gladly I would every day go
with the Brothers into the choir if I were strong enough God knoweth!" He
was full of faith and compassion, and he gladly read and heard of the
Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ; he had, moreover, a special devotion to
the Blessed Mary Magdalene, for he was born on Her Feast Day, wherefore
he often said the Mass for Her Feast, or humbly asked another to say it
for him. About a month before his death a certain Brother had this
vision after Matins: it seemed to him that the Brothers were singing the
Vigil in the choir, and that a corpse was there. And after the Vigil the
door of the choir was opened, and certain Lay Brothers of our household
came into the choir and stood round the corpse; amongst these were seen
two Lay Brothers who were already dead that came to the burial, namely,
Brother John Eme and Hermann, son of Wolter (now they had died four years
before this time). These, with the rest of the household, went forth as
if to follow the corpse going through the gate upon the south side of the
choir, and they went in procession to that part of the precinct where our
Brothers, who are Priests, are wont to be buried--and straightway the
vision disappeared. Then that Brother held his peace and began to think
within himself: "It may be that some one of our Brothers shall soon
depart out of this world, and we shall sing the solemn Vigils of the dead
for him." And so it came to pass, for when the month was ended, Brother
John Bouman died, and the things seen in the vision were fulfilled in due
order on his behalf, and he was buried near Brother Christian. He lived
in the Order of Regulars for thirty-one years and twenty-six days, and he
had friends in Zwolle that were good men and great: moreover, notable
increase of goods came to our monastery from him and from his parents.
In the year of the Lord 1444, on the Feast of All Saints, was invested
Henry Ruhorst, a Clerk, who was born at Kampen.
In the same year, on the Octave of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, the Regulars of Haerlem, by the will of all, took upon them the
rule of the cloister.
After the Feast of St. Bartholomew, three of our Brothers who were
Priests, were sent to found the new House of Roermund.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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