The mystic from the Sonian Forest

As you explore the Sonian Forest you will inevitably come across Groenendael, the aptly-named Green Valley.

This place hides the remains of an Augustinian priory, founded in the XIV century. 

The remains is probably too strong a word, as there are no distinguishable features to suggest what was here centuries ago. On top of it, literally and figuratively, the construction of the Brussels Ring nearby has changed the original terrain.  

However, if you activate your imagination, sharpen your vision and start exploring the place, you will discover the traces of the past. (Frankly, you will be helped a great deal by information boards that have been put there just a few years ago. When I first stumbled upon this area, I did not have this wealth of knowledge in situ.)

The Green Valley features two picturesque ponds. 

Near the smaller of the two, you'll see will be a long single-storey building, somewhat hidden from the access road. It is actually a former church nave, which, after the suppression of this priory (and countless other abbeys) by Emperor Joseph II in 1783, was used as some kind of warehouse, or put into another use.

 

A former nave of the priory church

Adjacent to it is a smaller house, today a private residence, also a former priory building from 1744, presumably a laundry.

Right by the other bigger pond stands the most prominent structure - a kind of little chateau. I'm not sure if it is an XVIII-century addition to the priory (an abbot's palace?), or a later structure built from recycled bricks. 
 

Waiting for you discover, in large chunks among the trees, are scattered remains of the wall that once enclosed this place of sacrum from the world of profanum.

  

What seems like an erstwhile farmhouse, located nearby, serves as a combination of a history and nature museum (Arboretum of Groenendael), where you will learn quite a lot about the history of this priory and one of the greatest Flemish mystics who lived here. But, be prepared before you arrive, for it is open at strange hours.

The museum

As you pass the ex-nave, and turn to walk across the field of grass, you'll also discover one of the exciting features of the site - the remains of medieval chambers with vaulted corridors, including, apparently the scriptorium. It's closed off to individual visitors, though.  

 







Then, there's a little chapel dedicated to the mystic - Blessed Jan van Ruysbroeck (1293-1381). That chapel (not counting  the old trees) is pretty much the only witness today of the strong pull this place has had on people. The pull of this mystic. 

The chapel

Thanks to - inter alia - Evelyn Underhill's Ruysbroeck (1915), let me draw a little sketch of the "spirit of these woods."

The Blessed Jan van Ruysbroeck - painting at St. Gudule Cathedral

Jan van Ruysbroeck was born in a village bearing his name, between Brussels and Hal. Raised by a pious woman, who would later enter the Brussels Beguinage, at the age of eleven he moved on his own to Brussels to be educated by his uncle, a Canon at the Cathedral of St. Gudule. Under the formative influence of the two, he set out on the path towards priesthood, becoming ordained in 1317. For twenty-six years, he served as a secular priest in Brussels, until 1343, when, at fifty years of age, he, his uncle and another companion, a canon drawn to the life of the early Apostles, decided to move to a remote location. Withdrawal to a 'desert' is a famous motif in the lives of saints. The three sought to devote themselves to the life of contemplation in solitude, freed from the distractions of the city, its preoccupation with temporal affairs. Thanks to John III, Duke of Brabant, they were given an old hermitage of Groenendael. Five years later, due to the influx of disciples, their life became more structured and based on the rule of the Augustinian Canons. Ruysbroeck was made prior. 

A statue of Ruysbroeck at St. Gudule Cathedral

For the next thirty years, he lived here, creating the bulk of his writings, inspired by the constant, silent, profound existence with  the Unseen. It is said that he would retire into the woods, whenever the "Spirit" filled him with enlightenment, carrying the tablet (just as today one would carry a laptop computer) to record his thoughts. A spot near his favourite tree, under which he would write his works, is marked today by an information board. It shows a famous iconographic portrayal of him, writing in a trance-like state, surrounded by a flame of the Holy Spirit. He wrote for the guidance of Poor Clares of Brussels, but also to those who desired to perfect their spiritual life. He extolled the virtues of humility, generosity and purity, counseled on how to deal with periods of  "spiritual dryness" (today, one might arguably call it depression), advised those tormented by scrupulosity to put their total trust in God. In his view, the believer should be in such profound, loving union with the Almight as to be there "a oneness in love." This for him was the apex of the spiritual life.

With a reputation for sanctity already established in his days, and spreading to Germany, France, even England, he received a stream of visitors from all over northern Europe. He was a friend of Geert de Groote, founder of the 'Brotherhood of the Common Life,'  one of whose disciples was Thomas a Kempis.  Ruysbroeck may quite possibly have influenced the content of On the Imitation of Christ.  

Once a priest from Paris came to consult Ruysbroeck on the state of his soul, and was told: "You are as holy as you wish to be." That this statement, among many of his penetrating analyses of human nature, is recalled in the writings on the Eastern spirituality attests to the far-reaching  influence of Ruysbroeck. 

After his death, brought on by illness at the age of eighty-eight, his relics were transferred to Saint Gudule's, but they were lost during the French Revolution.