Strange Vagabond of God: Story of John Bradburne

John Bradburne’s life was a remarkable spiritual odyssey. After wartime service on the Indian sub-continent he became a perennial pilgrim, never at home in the world, not even in his native England. Restless wanderings led him through Europe to the Holy Land, to a succession of religious communities, and ultimately to Africa, where he met a violent death during the Zimbabwean war of independence in 1979. This astonishing account of his life among the lepers, and the astonishing events at his funeral, make it clear that here was a man marked with special charisma, who was marked out for sanctity. Since his death devotion to his memory has sprung up in southern Africa and elsewhere. Poet, mystic, hermit and vagabond, John Bradburne’s life was a ceaseless quest for God. Fr John Dove SJ first met John Bradburne during the Second World War. He entered the Jesuits in 1949 and served the Zimbabwe mission for over thirty years.