Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/John of Bridlington
JOHN (d. 1379), called of Bridlington, saint, born at Twenge or Thwing, near Bridlington, was sent to school when five years old, and as a child was remarkable for his piety. In his twelfth year he took a vow of chastity, and when about twenty years of age became a canon regular at St. Mary, Bridlington. According to Capgrave he studied at Oxford. John took priest's orders, and served various offices in his priory, being successively master of the novices, precentor, almoner, and sub-prior. Finally, on 3 Jar 1361, he was made prior. This seems to be the correct date, but Dugdale distinguishes John de Twenge from John de Bridlington, whose accession he dates on 13 July 1366 (Monasticon, vi. 284). The two persons are no doubt identical, and Hugh expressly states that John at his death in 1379 had been prior for nineteen years. John was distinguished for his prudence and piety, and even in his lifetime is said to have performed many miracles, to have walked on the water, raised the dead, and filled his granaries by prayer. He died on 10 Oct. 1379, and was buried at Bridlington; Hugh gives his age as fifty-five, but the life in Capgrave as fifty-nine. It was soon reported that miracles were worked at his tomb (Wals. Hist. Angl. ii. 189), and in July 1386, on an application made by the prior of Bridlington, the vicar of the Archbishop of York gave orders for evidence to be taken as to their truth (Raine, Letters from Northern Registers, pp. 420-1). In October 1400 John Gisburn, a canon of Bridlington, went to Rome to procure the canonisation of the late prior (Fœdera, viii. 161, orig. ed.) This shows that 1395, the alleged date of his canonisation, is incorrect, and, in truth, it is questionable whether John has been formally canonised. There is, however, no doubt that he was honoured and worshipped as a saint within a few years of his death. His body was formally translated to his shrine by order of the pope, and at the hands of the archbishop and bishops of the northern province, on 11 March 1404 (Wals. Hist. Angl. ii. 262). His tomb was also resorted to by many pilgrims, among whom we find Thomas Holland, duke of Exeter, in 1417, and Henry V in 1421.
Bale and later writers have identified St. John of Bridlington with the author of the alleged prophetic verses relating to English history which were current under the name of a John of Bridlington. Mr. Wright thinks the prophet a mere invention, and the true authorship of the prophecy and the accompanying commentary unknown. In any case, it is improbable that the prophecy, which, since it is dedicated to Humphrey de Bohun, seventh earl of Hereford, must have been written between 1361 and 1372, should have been ascribed to a living and dignified ecclesiastic. The prophecies were, however, well known, and accepted at Bridlington Priory within a few years of John's death, and are largely used in the Chronicle of the Monk of Bridlington printed in 'Chronicles of Edward I and II' (Rolls Ser.) The prophecies themselves are printed in Wright's ' Political Songs' (Rolls Ser.) These prophecies are frequently referred to by Walsingham and other writers of his time under the name of Bridlington, and were interpreted by them to foretell events of their own day, such as the death of Archbishop Scrope. Other works doubtfully ascribed to John are 'Homilies' and 'Commentarii super psalterium cum canticis, symbolo Athanasii, et oratione Dominica.' The latter were once in the library of the monastery of Sion.
[There is a life of St. John of Bridlington in Capgrave's Nova Legenda Anglio, which is given in a shorter form by Surius in his Vitse Sanctorum ; another life by a writer called Hugh is printed by the Bollandists; Walsingham's Hist. Angl.; Wright's Pol. Songs, i. 123; Stubbs's Chronicles, Edw. I and II, ii. p. xxi (these last works are in the Rolls Ser.); Tanner'sBibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 125; Bolland. A.SS. 10 Oct. v. 135-44, and Oct. Supplementum, p. 42 ; authorities quoted.]