The Eucharist, the Papacy, and the Martyrs of Gorkum

Although their feast is not observed in the general Roman calendar or the calendar of the United States, the Roman Martyrology and the national calendar of the Church in the Netherlands today observe the feast of the Martyrs of Gorkum. These nineteen victims of the interreligious wars spawned by the Protestant Reformation are perhaps not widely known outside of their native region, yet their witness still speaks to us in the present day. Their feast is an appropriate day to reflect on that witness.

The martyrdom of these nineteen men cannot be understood apart from the history of the period. Mere decades after Protestantism began, various European nobles used the religious disagreements of the era as part of their jockeying for power within the complex political systems of late Medieval Europe. Certain groups of peasants used the new religious beliefs as justification for airing political grievances, often in violent ways. Catholic rulers tried to limit the revolutionary power of the new teachings by attempting to outlaw Protestantism and using force when the laws failed.

In the Spanish Netherlands of 1566, mobs of converts to the new religion attacked Catholic churches and monasteries, looting them and destroying sacred images as violating the commandment against idolatry. This violence led to the Spanish crown appointing a successful general, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Grand Duke of Alba, as the governor of the territory. The harsh measures used to restore order and punish the rebels (including a tribunal that sentenced so many to death, the Dutch called it the Council of Blood) created even more ill will. The Protestant noblemen of the Netherlands, committed to a Calvinism imported from France, banded together in open revolt against Spanish rule, many of them taking to the sea as privateers. These “Sea Beggars” looted and pillaged for three years, using English ports to sell their stolen goods and refit their ships, until finally, in 1572, Queen Elizabeth I refused to give them safe harbor.

They needed to find a new base of operations. On April 1, 1572, the Sea Beggars successfully attacked the port city of Brielle, establishing a firm foothold in the province of Holland. The rebels soon captured the city of Vlissingen, and in June 1572, Dordrecht and Gorkum. In Gorkum, the Protestants arrested all the Catholic clergy they were able, including Nicholas Pieck, the head of the town’s Franciscan friary, with eight other Franciscan priests and two lay brothers; the parish priest, Leonardus Vechel and his assistant, and two other priests in the town.

These men were imprisoned in a dark dungeon, tortured, and urged by their Protestant captors to abandon their belief in the Eucharist and the authority of the Pope. The Protestants seemed to take special offense at the Franciscans’ religious mode of life. They took Fr. Pieck’s Franciscan cord from around his waist and tied it around his neck. Looping the cord over the rafters, they raised him and let his body drop to the ground, repeating this torture until the cord broke.

Hearing of the imprisonment, a Dominican friar in a nearby town, John of Hoornaar, disguised himself in an effort to reach the prisoners and give them the comfort of the sacraments. His subterfuge was discovered, and the rebels added Fr. John to the number of their prisoners. The Sea Beggars took their prisoners from Gorkum to their base in Brielle, subjecting them to ridicule and mockery along the way. Incarcerated in Brielle were other priests from neighboring communities. The total at one time included twenty-three men, but the tortures and degradations compelled four men among the prisoners to recant their Catholic faith in exchange for their release, bringing the remaining captives to nineteen. These included the diocesan priest Fr. Andrew Wouters, a notorious womanizer, known to have fathered several children.

Writing to the Sea Beggars in Brielle, the overall leader of the Dutch rebels urged leniency for the priests and religious, likely aware that any harsh actions against them would solidify international opinions against the rebels. Despite this, the Protestants in Brielle conducted a sham trial, in which the Catholics were once again asked to renounce the Eucharist and the Pope. Fr Wouters is on record as having responded to their accusers: “Fornicator I always was; heretic I never was.” The nineteen men were found guilty on July 9, 1572, and hanged from the rafters of a turf shed until dead, though it took two hours for some of them to die. Their bodies were mutilated after their death and buried in a ditch.

The iconoclastic riots of 1566 and the attack on Brielle in 1572, in hindsight, were seen as the start of what became called the Eighty Years War, or, according to some scholars, the Dutch Revolt. In 1616, when the conflict had somewhat calmed down between the two factions, the remains of the nineteen martyrs were retrieved from the site of their burial and brought to a Franciscan church in the city of Brussels, where they remain to this day in a common reliquary. The martyrs were beatified by Pope Clement X in 1675 and canonized by Pope Bl Pius IX on July 29, 1867 as part of the celebrations honoring the 1800th anniversary of the martyrdoms of Sts Peter and Paul. (The same day also saw the canonizations of St Josaphat Kuntsevich, St Leonard of Port Maurice, and St Paul of the Cross, as well as others.) To this day, there is a pilgrimage to the site of their martyrdom in Brielle at this time of year.

In many ways, the Martyrs of Gorkum were a microcosm of Dutch Catholicism in their day. The nineteen martyrs are:

From the Franciscan priory in Gorkum, Fr Nicholas Pieck, guardian; his vicar Fr Jerome of Weert; Fr Godfried of Mervel (considered the first canonized saint of Belgium); Frs. Theodorus van der Eem, Nicasius of Heeze, Willehad of Denmark, Anthony of Hoornaar, Anthony of Weert, and Francis of Roye; and the Franciscan lay brothers Peter of Assche and Cornelius of Wijk bij Duurstede.

The other priests of Gorkum were Fr Leonardus van Veghel, parish priest of Gorkum and effective spokesman for the group; his associate, Fr Nicholaas Poppel; Fr Godfried van Duynen, another secular priest; and Fr John of Oisterwijk, an Augustine canon and chaplain to a group of religious sisters in Gorkum.

The priests added to the first group were the Dominican, Fr John of Hoornaar (sometimes called John of Cologne from his hometown); the Norbertines Fr Adrian van Hilvarenbeek and Fr James Lacobs; and the secular priest mentioned, Fr Andrew Wouters.

Several lessons can be learned from these nineteen men. I find the differences among the martyrs encouraging. They ranged in age from the prime of their life in their twenties and thirties to men in their nineties. They came from religious orders and the diocesan clergy. Many were very well educated, but some were simply parish priests. What united them was their belief in the Eucharist and the primacy of the Pope, a belief for which they gave their lives.

There is one particularly striking contrast in the story. One of the four men who renounced his faith under pressure was a pious young Franciscan novice. On the other hand, St Andrew Wouters was a sorry excuse for a priest for much of his life, yet he stood firm when his time of trial came. This should perhaps have us consider that none are beyond the reach of God’s mercy, and especially remind us that only God can judge where our neighbor truly stands in relation to Him.

The Martyrs of Gorkum stand as witnesses to what any Catholic may be called to in politically uncertain times. Is our belief in the Eucharist strong enough that we would be willing to be tortured and die for that faith? There are countries today where Catholics are being killed for their faith, even for their belief in the Fatherhood of God. Regardless of our state in life, may we all remain as faithful as these holy men. May their prayers strengthen us with the same strength God gave them.