Above:  The Hapsburg Empire in 1547

MARTYRED JULY 9, 1572

SAINT NICHOLAS PIECK

SAINT JEROME WEERDEN

SAINT ANTONY OF HOORNAER

SAINT ANTONY OF WEERT

SAINT THEODORE VAN DER EEM

SAINT GODEFRIED OF MERVEL

SAINT NICASIUS JANNSEN

SAINT ANTONY VAN WILLEHAD

SAINT CORNELIUS OF WYK

SAINT PETER OF ASSCHE

SAINT FRANCIS OF ROYE

SAINT LEONARDUS VECHEL

SAINT JEANNES LENARTE

SAINT NICHOLAS JANNSEN POPPEL

SAINT GODEFRIED VAN DUYNSEN

SAINT JOHANNES VAN HOORNAER

SAINT ADRIANUS JANSSEN

SAINT JACOBUS LUCOPS

SAINT ANDREAS WOUTERS

Authors of accounts of martyrs tend to focus on martyrs from their tradition.  So, on the Roman Catholic calendar, one finds names of Roman Catholics whom Protestants, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox killed.  Accordingly, Eastern Orthodox calendars contain names of Orthodox Christians whom Roman Catholics martyred.  Anglican calendars lead us  to accounts of good Anglicans whom Roman Catholics and some occasional Protestants killed.  And (especially old) Protestant sources are as prone to anti-Roman Catholicism as old Roman Catholic sources are to hysterics over the existence of Protestantism, and therefore to institutional defensiveness.  If, in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Gentile, then neither are there Protestants or Anglicans or Roman Catholics or Eastern Orthodox; such divisions prove irrelevant in Christ.  So a Christian martyr is a Christian martyr first and foremost on my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days.

Today I add the Martyrs of Gorkum, or Gorinchem, Holland.  Some historical background is essential.  Holland was a Hapsburg domain under Spanish rule in 1572.  The Eighty Years’ War, which ended in Dutch independence, had begun four years earlier.  The Holland of 1572 consisted of the modern-day Kingdoms of Belgium and The Netherlands.  Our story is set in The Netherlands part of Holland.  There was no separation of religion and politics.  Most Dutch (at least the non-Belgian ones) were Calvinists, and the Hapsburg rulers were Roman Catholics.

St. Nicholas Pieck was the Guardian of the Observant (really strict) Franciscan house at Gorkum.  Most of the other Martyrs of Gorkum came from that house; priests from nearby communities also became victims of the violence.  Of most of these saints we have only glowingly positive accounts.  Then there is St. Andreas Wouters, of whom the Catholic Encyclopedia says

…whose conduct was not edifying up to the time of his arrest, but who made ample amends by his martyrdom.

All nineteen saints experienced tortures for their faith and refused the same offer of freedom in exchange for abandoning their faith.  And all nineteen died on the grounds of a deserted monastery on the outskirts of Brielle.  Thus Calvinists made more Roman Catholic martyrs.

I have a shirt which reads,

WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB?

I know, it should read,

WHOM WOULD JESUS BOMB?

I wonder,

WHOM WOULD JESUS MARTYR?

And why do people who profess to follow him martyr others who make the same profession of faith?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 5, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ROBERT FRANCIS KENNEDY, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL AND SENATOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT BONIFACE OF MAINZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

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Gracious God, in every age you have sent men and women

who have given their lives in witness to your love and truth.

Inspire us with the memory of the Martyrs of Gorkum,

whose faithfulness led to the way of the cross,

and give us courage to bear full witness with our lives

to your Son’s victory over sin and death,

for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Ezekiel 20:40-42

Psalm 5

Revelation 6:9-11

Mark 8:34-38

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 59

Above:  England in 700 C.E.

SAINT HEDDA OF WESSEX (DIED 705)

Roman Catholic Bishop

St. Hedda of Wessex (died 705), once a monk at St. Hilda Monastery, Whitby, England, became Bishop of Wessex in 675.  His first see city was Dorcester, near Oxford; the second was Winchester.  Bishop for three decades, he gave Malmesbury Abbey a land endowment.  The saint also helped King Ine of Wessex (reigned 688-726) write the law code in 690-693.  This was a foundational law code English history, one which reflected Ine’s Christianity, if not post-Enlightenment ideals of civil liberties.  King Alfred the Great (reigned 871-899) borrowed from Ine’s law code when creating his own.

As for Ine, he abdicated in the last year of his life.  Then he and Aethelburth, his wife, made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he died.

As I write hagiographies I include saints who have functioned in political roles, often as royal or imperial advisers.  Those who impress me the most are those, such as St. Hedda, who used their position to protect minorities.  Ine’s law code, for example, extended protection to the Welsh.  Ine did issue the law code, so much credit for this goes to him, of course.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 5, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ROBERT FRANCIS KENNEDY, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL AND SENATOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT BONIFACE OF MAINZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

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Lord God, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses.

Grant that we [encouraged by the example of your servant Saint Hedda of Wessex]

may persevere in the course that is set before us and, at the last,

share in the eternal joy with all the saints in light,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Micah 6:6-8

Psalm 9:1-10

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Luke 6:20-23

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 59

Above:  Northern Italy in 1811

SAINT VINCENTIA GEROSA (1784-1847)

Cofounder of the Sisters of Charity of Lovere

Her feast transferred from July 4

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SAINT BARTHOLOMEA CAPITANIO (1807-1833)

Cofounder of the Sisters of Charity of Lovere

Her feast transferred from July 26

Born at Lovere, Italy, baptized Catherine, and orphaned as a youth, St. Vincentia Gerosa (1784-1847) devoted her life to helping the poor.  In 1832 she and St. Bartholomea Capitanio (1807-1833) founded the Sisters of Charity of Lovere, an order devoted to education children and helping the sick and the poor.  Capitanio, also born at Lovere, in the Italian Alps, then part of the Austrian Empire, had wanted even as a girl to become a nun.  Yet her parents had refused to grant permission as long as she lived in their household.  So she had devoted herself to educating young people and to practicing perpetual chastity anyway.  Capitanio died in 1833, and Gerosa succeeded her as head of the order.

The Roman Catholic Church canonized both women in 1950.

The Hebrew Prophets thundered their disapproval of the exploitation of vulnerable members of society, especially the poor.  These two saints devoted their lives to work which would have made glad the hearts of these prophets, had they been alive to witness them.  May the same be true of you, O reader, and of me.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 5, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ROBERT FRANCIS KENNEDY, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL AND SENATOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT BONIFACE OF MAINZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

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O God, your Son came among us to serve and not to be served,

and to give his life for the life of the world.

Lead us by his love to serve all those to whom the world offers no comfort and little help.

Through us give hope to the hopeless,

love to the unloved,

peace to the troubled, and

rest to the weary,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Hosea 2:18-23

Psalm 94:1-15

Romans 12:9-21

Luke 6:20-36

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 60

Above:  Southern Germany in 919 C.E.

SAINT ADALBERO OF AUGSBURG (DIED 909)

Roman Catholic Monk, Abbot, and Bishop

His feast transferred from April 28

uncle of 

SAINT ULRIC OF AUGSBURG (890-973)

Roman Catholic Bishop

His feast = July 4

Our story begins with his uncle, St. Adalbero of Augsburg (died 909).  St. Adalbero, who had become a Benedictine at Dillengen in 850, served as Abbot of Ellswangen then as Abbot of Lorsch; he restored the latter abbey.  Sometime after 887 St. Adalbero became Bishop of Augsburg.  Aside from his episcopal tasks, St. Adalbero functioned as an adviser to German King and Holy Roman Emperor Arnulf (reigned 887-899), as tutor to Arnulf’s son and successor, Louis III the Child (born 893; reigned 899-911), the last Carolingian ruler, and functioned as Louis III’s regent for a few years.

St. Adalbero also educated his nephew, St. Ulric of Augsburg (890-973), a native of Augsburg.  St. Ulric, as Bishop of Augsburg form 923 until his retirement, led the populace of the city in rebuilding the city and the cathedral after Magyars raided and plundered Augsburg.  He retired to St. Gall Abbey in modern-day Switzerland, having named his nephew, Henry I of Augsburg (died 982), to succeed him.  This seems to have been a bad choice, but some realities become clear only after the fact.  Pope John XV canonized St. Ulric in 993.  This was the first recorded canonization by a Bishop of Rome.

Each of us faces a unique set of challenges.  You have yours, O reader, as I have mine.  They overlap yet the sets of challenges are not identical.  And Sts. Adalbero and Ulric of Augsburg had their unique sets of challenges.  What matters is how each of us meets then.  Do we, trusting in God, do our best?  We are fallible, of course.  We will have some good intentions and undesirable consequences of actions.  Yet God knows this about us and works through us anyway.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 5, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ROBERT FRANCIS KENNEDY, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL AND SENATOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT BONIFACE OF MAINZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

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Almighty God, you have raised up faithful bishops of your church,

including your servants Saints Adalbero and Ulric of Augsburg.

May the memory of their lives be a source of joy for us and a bulwark of our faith,

so that we may serve and confess your name before the world,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Ezekiel 34:11-16 or Acts 20:17-35

Psalm 84

1 Peter 5:1-4 or Ephesians 3:14-21

John 21:15-17 or Matthew 24:42-47

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 60