GIOVANNI di LEEUWEN. — The most notable mystical writer of the Groenendaal school, alongside Ruysbroeck. Born in 1295, he lived as a wandering artisan before entering as a lay brother in the monastery of Groenendaal, and died in 1378. Known as “the good cook” for his kindness to guests, he was a man of great austerity who enjoyed elevated contemplation.
He composed various ascetic and mystical treatises in the vernacular, which were widely popular in the Low Countries and beyond the Rhine, where some were translated into Low German. Miraeus, even in the 17th century, affirmed that these treatises deserved to be translated into all languages. A disciple of the great Brabantine mystic Hadewych, like Ruysbroeck—with whom he lived at Groenendaal—he nonetheless gave his works a personal imprint. More than others, he dwells on the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and, in particular, on the Interior of Jesus as a path toward the contemplation of the Most Holy Trinity and the Essence of God. G. was the first in the Low Countries to rise against Eckhart. A man of coarse and passionate temperament, he harshly criticized the depraved customs of his time. Yet he shines forth for his sound and robust faith, apostolic zeal, uprightness, and childlike simplicity.