Carmelite lay brother and reformer of the Observant Carmelites in the 16th century.
John of St. Samson was born in 1571 to a family of relatively comfortable means in Sens, France. At three years of age John contracted small pox which led to the resultant blindness with which he lived the rest of his life. His parents both died when John was 10 years of age at which time he went into the care of a maternal uncle. It was in these years with his uncle the a great gift in music became apparent in the young John.
In 1597 John went to live with his brother in Paris and remained there for four years during which time a deepening of his life of faith occurred, notably a greater commitment to prayer as well as devotion to the Blessed Mother.
With the death of his brother in 1601 John gradually fell into dependence upon the goodwill of others and finally near destitution. During this time John made a practice of regularly visiting a Carmelite church at Place Maubert, eventually spending there several hours every day. Despite the social stigma attached to his disability and poverty John gradually developed positive relationships with local parishioners as well as certain of the Carmelite friars.
Through friendship with a young friar named Matthew Pinault John was eventually offered a position in the parish playing and teaching organ in exchange for a room. Gradually his spiritual gifts were increasingly recognised and a group of young friars and lay people formed around him; together the studied scripture and discussed matters spiritual. The Carmelite Reform was underway at this time and John felt stirred to ask for admission to the Order as a lay brother.
John was admitted to the Order and was invested as a novice in 1606, taking the Carmelite habit at the Carmel in Dol, Brittany and the name 'John of St. Samson', after the Breton saint Samson who was first bishop of Dol.
In 1612 John moved to the community in Rennes and remained there until his death in 1636. "Over these 24 years John was the keystone in forming friars in the spirit of the Order... His writings... lay out the fundamental principles that were to guide the [Order's] Reform.
(From ``At the Fount of Elijah - The Carmelite Tradition`` by Wilfrid McGreal, O. Carm., Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999. p. 72-76.
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