Br Cascarino Valentine OFM
A lot of people wanting to join the Franciscan Order often ask me if we have a way of discernment as distinct as that of the Jesuits. My answer is always a resounding “yes” – and I often sustain this by pointing to the Servant of God John Bradburne (1921-1979). For him, one could know God’s will through an aggregate of coincidences. This method may be dubbed coincidence-in-discernment. Bradburnian discernment doesn’t simply deal with what one feels or thinks God may be saying, but rather how God is actively pointing out one’s path through coincidences that one is fully aware of.
He began his vocation search in India during the Second World War as a soldier with the British Army. Fr John Dove SJ, his wartime friend and later his biographer, sent him to the Franciscans in Dehra Dun where the army was stationed. This was in 1942, and this was Bradburne’s first encounter with the Franciscans. Following demobilisation from the army, he returned to England, became a Catholic and tried unsuccessfully to become a Benedictine and later a Carthusian. When he left Charterhouse going to Jerusalem via Rome, the sub-prior Dom Andrew Grey, who had overseen his brief formation, gave him a letter to present to a Franciscan friend of his in Jerusalem. He arrived in Rome with a group of British pilgrims and coincidentally met this Jerusalem Franciscan – whose name was Fr Carmel and who happened to be visiting Rome. Fr Carmel advised him to continue his pilgrim’s journey to Jerusalem via Naples and not Brindisi as he had been contemplating. This was his second Franciscan connection.
The ship from Naples left port on October 4 – the feast of Saint Francis. This was his third Franciscan connection. While on board, he ran into Fr Carmel once more and served his Mass. The Franciscan friar had boarded further south in Catania. This was his fourth Franciscan connection. On October 9 they reached Limassol and Fr Carmel took him to a friary. From there he was to procure a visa to the Holy Land at the Israeli consulate in Nicosia through the assistance of the Franciscans. The “wooden cargo ship” that took him to Haifa was called San Antonio. This was his fifth Franciscan connection.
He arrived Haifa and started off to Nazareth. There he went into a tiny café whose proprietor, Br Amelio, was an Italian and a Third Order Franciscan. Br Amelio offered him the position of co-proprietor of the café, but he was intent on reaching Jerusalem. This was his sixth Franciscan connection. Through a few other coincidences involving the Franciscans in Jerusalem he would soon find himself in Louvain in Belgium as a postulant with the Congregation of Our Lady’s Fathers of Sion – whom he encountered in Jerusalem.
His stay in Louvain came to an end after 18 months. His last attempt at religious life was again with the Benedictines at Prinknash Abbey which was short-lived. From then on, he lived as a Franciscan Tertiary. Research is ongoing to determine when he actually joined the Third Order of Saint Francis.
When he came to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) he confided in Fr Desmond O’Malley OFM that he harboured three wishes: to serve lepers, to die a martyr and to be buried in a Franciscan habit. These three wishes were fulfilled – he had in fact received the Franciscan habit from Fr Sean Gildea OFM. When I recently visited his grave in Chishawasha cemetery, I noticed the following inscription: John Bradburne of Mutemwa, 3rd Order of St Francis, born 14 June 1921, died 5 Sept 1979”. So, whenever you develop the idea that God is calling you to become a Franciscan remember to ask yourself this question: how often have I rubbed shoulders with the Franciscans? This is Bradburnian discernment.