BRUGMAN, Johannes. — A pious and learned Dutch preacher and man of letters, born at Kempen toward the end of the fourteenth century, died at Nijmegen on 19 September 1473 (according to others, 19 October 1475), in the odor of sanctity. After a stormy youth he entered the Franciscan Order of the Observant Reform, which was then spreading into Germany and the Low Countries. First a lecturer in theology, then guardian at Mechelen and vicar provincial of the Observants of Holland (1462–64), he worked strenuously for the spread of the reform in those regions and is counted among the first founders of the Observant province of Cologne, of which he became vicar.
His fame rests, besides his various spiritual, historical and poetical works, on his preaching, which he carried on with fervor and intrepid zeal for about twenty years in his native land, always accompanied by the example of a holy life. Denis the Carthusian dedicated to him his work *De doctrina et regulis vitae christianae*.
Principal works (in Flemish): *Sermone allegorico sul Salmo 22, 5: Parasti in conspectu meo mensam...*; *De Colationes* to his confreres at Kempen (cf. *Ons gestelyk erf*, Antwerp 1934, pp. 253–89; 1935, pp. 167–89; 1936, pp. 5–18), a *Life of Jesus*, a masterpiece of piety; *Vita (s.) Ludovine Virginis*, frequently printed and later twice enlarged by B. himself (in *Acta SS. Aprilis*, II, Antwerp 1675, pp. 270–302 and 303–64); *De ruinis Observantiae*, i.e. *Speculum Imperfectionis Fratrum Minorum...*, a significant and informative work addressed to his brethren to warn them against laxity (ed. in *Arch. franc. hist.*, 2 [1909], pp. 615–25, and *Supplement*, ibid., 4 [1911], pp. 314–317). Various *sermons* and *sacred poems* which place him among the best Flemish poets.