Dutch Franciscan Martyrs: Remaining Faithful to Catholic Beliefs

On July 9, Franciscans celebrate the memory of Saints Nicholas Pieck (1534-1572), Willehad, and their seventeen companions, martyred during the brutal religious wars that accompanied the Reformation in Europe.

Catholic beliefs challenged

In the Netherlands, at that time ruled by Spain, the population in some areas was increasingly drawn to Protestant beliefs, whereas in others, people tended to remain loyal to inherited Catholic practices. In the northern provinces, where Calvinists were in the majority, an armed resistance against harsh Spanish rule began in 1569, although there were pockets where Catholicism still remained strong.

Franciscans rounded up, imprisoned, abused

In April 1572, a motley armed band of Calvinists, known as the "Sea Beggars," headed by William van der Marck, seized the town of Brielle; from there, on June 26, they took the town of Gorkum (today, generally spelled as Gorinchem). There they rounded up the 11 friars of the local Franciscan community, headed by their guardian, Friar Nicholas, as well as four other priests in the town. The friars were thrown into a foul dungeon, where they suffered abusive treatment, several brutally; one of the friars, Willehad, was 90 years old.

Faithful to belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist

On July 6, they were shipped to the base at Brielle for official interrogation. There, joined by four more priests seized from the area, the captives were made to enter a disputation with Protestant clergy, being asked to renounce their belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and papal primary. All of them remained faithful to their Catholic beliefs. Nicholas' relatives came to Brielle and offered to ransom him, but Nicholas said he would remain with his brothers.

Although the bodies of the martyrs were buried in a couple of ditches where they were killed, in 1616 their remains were brought to Catholic territory in the Spanish-ruled Netherlands and are presently housed in St. Nicholas Church in Brussels.

Faithful to the End

Finally, despite the complaint of the magistrates of Gorkum against the illegal detention of the captives and against the explicit directives of the Protestant leader, William of Orange, on July 9 van der Marck ordered the Catholic clergy to be hung from the rafters of a turf shed.  One of the diocesan priests, Andreas Wouters, was known to be a womanizer who had fathered several children; as the executioners slipped the noose over his head, they offered him one last chance to deny his faith. Wouters responded: "A fornicator I always was, a heretic never!  I will die with the others."

The execution of the Dutch martyrs, as depicted at the time of their canonization in 1867 by Cesare Fracassini (detail), Vatican museum

The site of the martyrdoms in Brielle is today a meditative garden and place of pilgrimage.

Captives beatified, canonized together

Beatified together in 1675 and canonized in 1867, the Gorkum martyrs we remember today include:

11 Franciscan friars

• Nicholas Pieck (guardian, 38, priest and theologian)
• Willehad of Denmark (90, priest)
• Jerome of Weert (vicar, 50, priest and pastor of friars’ church)
• Godfried of Melveren (60, priest and artist)
• Anthony of Hoornaar (priest)
• Nicasius of Heeze (50, priest and theologian)
• Anthony of Weert (50, priest)
• Theodore van der Eem (72, priest, chaplain to tertiary sisters in Gorkum)
• Francis de Roye (23, priest)
• Peter of Assche (42, lay brother)
• Cornelius of Wijk (24, lay brother)

2 Premonstratensian (Norbertine) canons

• Adrian van Hilvarenbeex (44)
• James Lacobs (31)

1 Dominican friar

• John of Cologne

1 Augustinian canon

• Jan of Oisterwijk (68, chaplain of beguinage in Gorkum)

4 secular priests

• Leonard Van Veghel (45, pastor of Gorkum)
• Godfried van Duynen (70)
• Nicholas Poppel (40)
• Andreas Wouters (30)

Words of Saint Nicholas Pieck to his companions before hanging:

The hour is now at hand, to receive from the hand of the Lord the long desired reward of the struggle, the crown of eternal happiness.

Main image: Martyrdom of Franciscan friars and other Catholic clerics at Briel, after their imprisonment at Gorkum (detail). Etching and engraving. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.