Meet John Bradburne: The Devoted Poet Whose Life Ended in Service to Lepers! (Joanne Wright) - 10/22/25

10/22/25 - John Bradburne's journey from England to the heart of Africa is a story unlike any other. A decorated World War II veteran and Oxford-educated poet, he spent years wandering through Europe and the Holy Land in search of God's will. His path ultimately led him to Zimbabwe, where he devoted himself to caring for men and women with Hansen's disease at the Mutemwa Leprosy Settlement. Living in a tin hut with a rosary in hand and the Eucharist at the center of his life, John restored dignity to those society had abandoned. When he refused to abandon the lepers during the Rhodesian Bush War, he was kidnapped and killed in 1979, dying as he had lived in fidelity to Christ. Today, with thousands of documented favors through his intercession, John Bradburne's cause for canonization is advancing, and he is remembered as a modern pilgrim-poet and martyr of charity.