Hermit, vagabond... saint?
Celia Brigstocke recalls John Bradburne, who laid down his life for lepers in war-torn Rhodesia
2 January 2009

John Bradburne wished to be buried in his Franciscan habit

On September 5 1979 the body of John Bradburne was found on the side of a road in war-torn Rhodesia. He had been kidnapped four days previously and shot by guerillas. This eccentric Englishman's wish to die a martyr had been fulfilled. So who was this extraordinary man who is now being considered for sainthood?

Born in 1921 in a small Cumbrian village, John Randal Bradburne was the son of an Anglican minister. A public school education prepared him for the Indian Army, which he joined as war broke out in 1939. As an officer in the Gurkhas he had more than his fair share of adventure, including living rough for several weeks in the Malayan jungle with another officer, being shipwrecked en-route to Sumatra and being transported aboard a British destroyer suffering from malaria and heat stroke.

John eventually rejoined his regiment before serving with the Chindits, run by Major General Orde Wingate. After a stint in Burma where he was plagued with bouts of malaria, he eventually returned to England and civvy life. There was a restlessness in him. He was being drawn to God and felt there was something he should be doing - he just didn't know what it was. For a brief time he worked for the Forestry Commission before deciding to enter a monastery. It was while living among the Benedictines that he converted to Catholicism.

But still the restless feeling persisted so once again John was on the move. His time teaching at a Devon prep school was short as he fell in love - something he hadn't expected or sought - so promptly left. A brief spell working on a fishing boat followed before trying once again to be a monk, this time for the Carthusian order.

Through the order, John went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem via Rome. With very little money and even less in the way of possessions, he travelled through Cyprus, Nazareth, Cana and Galilee. He was by now a Third Order Franciscan and praying the office of St Francis of Assisi as well as singing the little office of Our Lady daily in Latin. Relying totally on God for food, lodgings and transport, he eventually arrived in Jerusalem.

From there John, who had prayed for guidance, was led to the House of Ratisbonne, a monastery in Belgium. He found such peace within its walls he was certain his wanderings were at an end. A year later and he was back on the road, first to Italy for some months, before his father's death took him home to England.

John's nomadic life continued unabated. From living as a hermit in deepest Devon to working in a homeless shelter to busking around the towns, this unconventional "servant of God" went wherever He led him. But even for John Bradburne it was a huge leap from the rolling hills of the Devonshire countryside to an African cave. Yet that was where he had the urge to go. He wrote to John Dove, an old friend from his army days who was now a Jesuit priest, asking him if there was such a cave where he could live a reclusive life.

It was agreed he would help out in the missions, but even here John was unable to settle for long. He happily looked after the poor and the sick and helped out on the land, sleeping in old remote huts or beneath the stars.

It was while staying in a hut in the grounds of an education centre that his special relationship with bees came about. Desperate measures were required to gain the privacy he craved, so he prayed for a swarm of bees to nest in his hut to keep visitors at bay.

His prayer was answered and he was able to play his music, write poetry and pray completely undisturbed - the buzzing of hundreds of bees around his head bothered him not a jot. The presence of bees has been a sign for many people who have prayed to John since his death, that their prayers have been heard.

Almost 10 years after landing on African soil, John arrived to where he felt God was leading him. He and a missionary friend visited the Mutemwa leper colony and the conditions there appalled him. Despite all the work he'd done with the sick and the destitute before that, nothing had prepared him for the suffering and degradation he saw: the lepers with their open, weeping sores were filthy and hungry. Here, then, was where he intended to stay.

Only after much persuasion did he return to Rhodesian capital Salisbury (now Harare) long enough to collect his meagre belongings, then back to the settlement. Christ's vagabond, as he called himself, had found his calling.

As warden of the colony John Bradburne transformed Mutemwa. For the first time the lepers were treated as real people; he washed them, fed them and treated their wounds. He persuaded a doctor and a nun to help out and even built a small chapel where he played his harmonium and taught the people hymns.

For around three years all was well. Then relations between him and the colony's committee members became strained. They felt he was too generous with the food rations and that the lepers should have metal plates around their necks. John was furious and refused to reduce their food and had no intention of treating the inmates like cattle.

Inevitably he was sacked and forced to live outside the settlement in a hut with no water or electricity. For the next six years he helped the lepers any way he could, mostly at night, while during the day he prayed, wrote poetry and bathed in a nearby pool. John greatly admired St Francis of Assisi and adopted his lifestyle of poverty and fasting and wore the habit of a Third Order Franciscan.








Meanwhile, his enemies were growing. John's dogmatic approach had upset so many people over the years that it was expected that they would rise up against him. When they eventually came for him it is unlikely he was surprised as he had felt perturbed for some time and admitted to having been visited by a "Big Angel".

Late on Sunday night, September 2 1979, a group of Mujhibas, Robert Mugabe's henchmen, took him by force to their camp. Their leader knew of him and was reluctant to kill him, asking him instead if he would look after their own refugees in Mozambique. John refused: his work, he said, was with the lepers at Mutemwa. His fate was sealed.

It is not known exactly what happened after that but it's believed he was taken out and shot at the side of the road where he was found. Devoting his life to helping lepers and to dying a martyr were two of three wishes John Bradburne had confided he had.

The third was to be buried in his habit of the Franciscan order. At his funeral in Salisbury three white flowers were placed on the top of his coffin, representing John's love of the Blessed Trinity. His Franciscan habit was also draped across it, his wish forgotten in the confusion of events.

Mourners were amazed to see three drops of blood - a further symbol of the Trinity, they felt - fall from beneath the coffin. Upon opening the casket not a trace of blood was found - his body was clean. But it reminded them of his request to be buried in his habit. This was then done and John Bradburne was laid to rest.

Today, Mutemwa is a place of pilgrimage. Thousands visit each year to remember an unconventional man who dedicated his life to helping some of the most vulnerable people in society. We get a glimpse into his mind and his life through his writings, around 6,000 poems, but it's his unconditional love of God that speaks loud and clear through his work.

For further information on events marking John Bradburne's life and death, and the work of the John Bradburne Memorial Society, visit www.johnbradburne.com