By RAY CAVANAUGH
He led an extremely far-ranging life in both the distances he traveled and in the activities he undertook. He was also a misfit who eventually found a calling so noble that many now feel he is worthy of sainthood.
John Bradburne was born in Skirwith, Cumberland, UK, on June 14, 1921. His father, Thomas William Bradburne, was an Anglican clergyman.
After receiving his education at a prestigious boarding school, the younger Bradburne joined the British army, serving in Burma and British Malaya during World War II. He was courageous enough in combat, but his comrades tended to view him as a bit odd — he was known to start climbing trees spontaneously. As he saw more and more conflict and chaos, he turned increasingly to religion.
Returning to Europe after the war, Bradburne went through a series of jobs, including being a gravedigger and a street musician, according to the website of the Catholic Diocese of Westminster (UK).
He became a Catholic in 1947, converting to the faith while staying with Benedictine monks at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, UK. He wished to become a Benedictine monk himself, but this was not permitted, as he had only recently become a Catholic.
Soon after leaving the abbey, Bradburne hit the road like few others before or since. Walking and hitchhiking, he sometimes worked as a laborer. For most of the next 15 years, he roamed England, France, Belgium, Italy, Greece, and also made his way to Jerusalem. During some periods, he resided at religious orders, and in the mid-1950s he became a Franciscan tertiary.
In 1962, Bradburne — then past age 40 — no longer had as much wanderlust. He wrote to a Jesuit friend stationed in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), asking him, “Is there a cave in Africa where I can pray?”
There was indeed. So Bradburne relocated to Rhodesia, where he worked as a handyman in a Franciscan mission. At one point in 1969, he journeyed with a friend to visit the Mutemwa Leprosy Centre. Encountering hundreds of afflicted persons all but abandoned in abject squalor, he decided he would join them.
For the ensuing decade, he ardently attended to some of the world’s most destitute outcasts — feeding them, washing them, attending to their many bandages, and often personally carrying them to church.
Bradburne had almost no personal possessions. But he must have had some pens and paper, because he began to write an astonishing quantity of poetry. In fact, he is listed on guinnessworld
records.com as the “most prolific poet” in the English language, having composed some 6,000 poems totaling almost 170,000 lines of verse. In one of his many religious poems, he described himself as a “vagabond of God.” This phrase was later used in titles of two biographies: John Bradburne: The Vagabond of God by Didier Rance and Strange Vagabond of God by Fr. John Dove, SJ.
As the 1970s came to an end, the ongoing Rhodesian Bush War had intensified. With widespread political violence in the region, Bradburne was urged to seek a safer location. To one such warning he replied, “Would they waste a bullet on a clown?”
On September 5, 1979, the self-described “clown” who refused to leave his lepers was abducted from his small hut and soon after shot to death.
Multiple groups were involved in the region’s violence, and there appears to be some ambiguity regarding which group was responsible for Bradburne’s slaying. Some sources say he was killed by guerrilla soldiers fighting for Zimbabwean independence, but not everyone accepts that account.
A martyr in any event, Bradburne’s former place of service would become a major pilgrimage site, with thousands of Zimbabweans visiting each year.
In the last decade of his life, Bradburne had expressed his three wishes: to care for lepers, to die a martyr, and to be buried in the Franciscan habit. All of these wishes were fulfilled.
The settlement where Bradburne worked still exists today as the Mutemwa Leprosy Care Centre. The website lepra.org.uk reports how some of the afflicted residents lead such an isolated existence that they are unaware if their family members are still alive.
Leprosy — which can exist for many years within a person before manifesting symptoms — persists to this day as a public health issue. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the year 2019 brought more than 200,000 new cases worldwide.
That same year, which marked the 40th anniversary of his murder, Bradburne received formal distinction as a servant of God. His cause for beatification is ongoing.
Among this year’s Bradburne centenary commemorations include a 100-day Poetry Project organized by the John Bradburne Memorial Society.
Persons who wish to review some of Bradburne’s massive poetical output can visit johnbrad
burnepoems.com.
And anyone curious about the Mutemwa Leprosy Care Centre can find the venue on Facebook.
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