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I
have been interested to learn
about John Bradburne
for several years and recently
I heard a 10 minute tribute to
him on Radio 4. After six weeks of enquiries I am pleased to have two
books about him.
Poems written
by John Bradburne
are estimated at more
than 9,000 as he wrote poetry every day. "Songs of the Vagabond" have been
selected by Professor David Crystal, an eminent author, lecturer,
broadcaster and linguist for the first book.
The second
book is "Strange Vagabond of God" and is the story of John Bradburne by
his friend Fr. John Dove SJ, who met and became deeply influenced by John
whilst serving with the 9th Gurkhas during the Second World War. This is a
remarkable book of a man's quest for God.
John Bradburn
had a few brief jobs, and served in the Far East during
the Second World War with the Gurkha's. He was lost for several weeks in
the Maylayan jungle with a fellow officer before escaping. After the war
he became a drifter having a series of jobs which were not held down for
long. He was a schoolmaster, forestry worker and junior sacristan at
Westminster Cathedral and minstrel to 'self-confessed vagabond'. He tried
unsuccessfully to become a monk, but did become a Third order Franciscan.
John Bradburne
was the son of Rev Thomas William Bradburne, Rector of Cawston from 1933
to 1946; John was educated at Gresham School, but must have spent some of
his teenage years here in the Old Rectory at Cawston., In 1947 he became a
Roman Catholic much to his father's disappointment.
In 1969 after
many years in Africa, he went to see the leper settlement at Mutemwa with
a friend, the scene they found of dereliction and squalor made him
immediately decide to remain and care for the lepers. He bathem them
himself, cut the nails of those who
had fingers and toes, fed them and cared for them in sickness and sat with
them reading the Bible when they were dying, he also huried them.
His work continues at the
Zimbabwe Leper Settlement 16 years after he was murdered by Rhodesian
Guerrillas of the Patriotic Front in September 1979.
A polished black granite
cross stands as a memorial to John Bradburne at the top of a 1,000ft high
rock that overlooks Mutemwa.
John Bradburne is supposed
to have told a priest that he had three wishes - to serve and live with
the lepers, to die a martyr and to be buried in his Franciscan habit. In
the course of his funeral three drops of blood fell from his coffin after
the ceremony the coffin was opened, it was dry, and the body was
inspected. He was dressed in a shirt and it was changed for his Franciscan
habit.
Many people claim to have
been cured after visiting Mutemwa and praying.
John Bradburne's followers
would like him to be recognised as Zimbabwe's first saint, and reading the
'Strange Vagabond of God' makes me think this will happen eventually.
I have taken some of these
details from Press Releases sent to me by the John Randal Bradburne
Memorial Society, c/o Brick House, Risbury, Leominster, Hertfordshire, HR6
ONQ, the Society's
secretary is John
Bradburne's niece, Celia Brigstocke (Tel 01568 760632). Website:
John Bradburne Memorial Society
I hope I have done John
Bradburne justice in these pages. If anyone is interested in learning more
I have prices and details of the books mentioned.
Published in the Parish Magazine by June Hopper May 1996
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