Titus Brandsma | |
|---|---|
 Brandsma in the 1920s | |
| Religious, priest and martyr | |
| Born | Anno Sjoerd Brandsma (1881-02-23)23 February 1881 Oegeklooster,Friesland,Netherlands |
| Died | 26 July 1942(1942-07-26) (aged 61) Dachau concentration camp,Bavaria,Nazi Germany |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 3 November 1985,Saint Peter's Basilica,Vatican City byPope John Paul II |
| Canonized | 15 May 2022,Saint Peter's Square,Vatican City byPope Francis |
| Majorshrine | Titus Brandsma Memorial, Nijmegen, Netherlands |
| Feast | 27 July |
| Attributes | Calced Carmelite habit Nazi concentration camp badge Martyr's palm |
| Patronage | Catholic journalists Catholic Esperantists Friesland Oss |
Titus BrandsmaOCarm (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈtityzˈbrɑntsmaː]; bornAnno Sjoerd Brandsma; 23 February 1881 – 26 July 1942) was a DutchCarmelite priest and a professor of philosophy. Brandsma was vehemently opposed toNazi ideology and spoke out against it many times beforeWorld War II. He was imprisoned at theDachau concentration camp, where he was murdered in 1942.
Brandsma wasbeatified by theCatholic Church in November 1985 as amartyr of the faith andcanonized on 15 May 2022 byPope Francis.
Brandsma was born Anno Sjoerd Brandsma to Titus Brandsma (died 1920) and his wife Tjitsje Postma (died 1933) at Oegeklooster, nearHartwerd, in the Province ofFriesland in 1881.[1] His parents, who ran a small dairy farm, were devout and committed Catholics, a minority in a predominantlyCalvinist region. With the exception of one daughter, all of their children (three daughters and two sons) enteredreligious orders.[2][3]
From the age of 11, Brandsma pursued his secondary studies in the town ofMegen, at aFranciscan-runminor seminary for boys considering a priestly or religious vocation.[2][4]
Brandsma entered thenovitiate of the Carmelite friars inBoxmeer on 17 September 1898, where he took thereligious name "Titus" (in honour of his father) by which he is now known. He professed his firstvows in October 1899.[2][5]
Ordained a priest in 1905, Brandsma was knowledgeable in Carmelitemysticism and was awarded adoctorate of philosophy fromPontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1909. From 1909 to 1923 he lived inOss and worked as a writer and teacher.[6] From 1916 on, he initiated and led a project to translate the works ofTeresa of Ávila into Dutch.[7] In 1919 he founded and for two years acted as head of a secondary school in Oss—the present day Titus Brandsma Lyceum.[8]
In 1921, Brandsma worked to resolve a controversy concerning Belgian artistAlbert Servaes' depiction of theStations of the Cross. From this came his series of meditations on each of the 14 stations.[9]
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One of the founders of the Catholic University of Nijmegen (nowRadboud University), Brandsma became a professor of philosophy and the history of mysticism at the school in 1923. He later served asrector magnificus (1932–33).[10] He was noted for his constant availability to everyone, rather than for his scholarly work as a professor. Brandsma also worked as a journalist and was the ecclesiastical adviser to Catholic journalists by 1935. He stayed at the friary ofOur Lady of Mount Carmel Kinsale, where he practiced English. That same year he traveled for a lecture tour of the United States and Canada, speaking at various institutions of his order.[2] On the occasion of his visit to a Carmelite seminary inNiagara Falls, Ontario, Brandsma wrote of thefalls that "I not only see the riches of the nature of the water, its immeasurable potentiality; I see God working in the work of his hands and the manifestation of his love."[11]
After theinvasion of the Netherlands by theThird Reich in May 1940, Brandsma's long-term fight against the spread of Nazi ideology and for educational and press freedom brought him to the attention of the Nazis.
In January 1942 he undertook to deliver by hand a letter from theConference of Dutch Bishops to the editors of Catholic newspapers in which the bishops ordered them not to print official Nazi documents, as was required under a new law by the German occupiers. He had visited fourteen editors before being arrested on 19 January at the Boxmeer monastery.[2]
After being held prisoner inScheveningen,Amersfoort, andCleves, Brandsma was transferred to theDachau concentration camp, arriving there on 19 June. His health quickly gave way, and he was transferred to the camp hospital. He died on 26 July 1942, from a lethal injection administered by a nurse[12] of theAllgemeine SS, as part of theirprogram of medical experimentation on the prisoners.[2]
Brandsma is honoured as amartyr within the Catholic Church. He wasbeatified in November 1985 byPope John Paul II. Hisfeast day is observed within the Carmelite order on 27 July.
On 25 November 2021,Pope Francis recognized amiracle attributed to the intercession of Brandsma, who "was killedin hatred of the faith", and authorized theCongregation for the Causes of Saints to advance Brandsma's cause for sainthood.[13]
On 4 March 2022, apapal consistory opened the way for hiscanonization[14][15] and set the date of the canonization ceremony to 15 May 2022, together withCharles de Foucauld andeight others.[16]
On Sunday, 15 May 2022, in front of more than 50,000 people from around the world, Pope Francis canonized Brandsma[17] and nine other saints at a Mass inSt. Peter's Square inVatican City.
"It is good to see that, through their evangelical witness, these Saints have fostered the spiritual and social growth of their respective nations and also of the entire human family", Pope Francis said during the Mass.[18]
In 2005, Brandsma was chosen by the inhabitants ofNijmegen as the greatest citizen to have lived there. A memorial church dedicated to him now stands in the city.[19]
Brandsma's studies on mysticism was the basis for the establishment in 1968 of the Titus Brandsma Institute in Nijmegen, dedicated to the study ofspirituality. It is a collaboration between the Dutch Carmelite friars andRadboud University Nijmegen.[20]
In his biography of Brandsma,The Man behind the Myth, Dutch journalist Ton Crijnen claims that Brandsma's character consisted of some vanity, a short temper, extreme energy, political innocence, true charity, unpretentious piety, thorough decisiveness, and great personal courage. His ideas were very much those of his own age and modern as well. He offset contemporary Catholicism's negative theological opinion about Judaism with a strong disaffection for any kind ofantisemitism in Hitler's Germany.[21]
Brandsma was honoured by the city of Dachau with a street adjoining the former camp, albeit one of the narrowest streets in the town.
Brandsma participated in the internationalEsperanto movement[22] and is considered apatron saint by theInternational Union of Catholic Esperantists.[23]
![Wall poem [nl] in Nijmegen](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3a%2527Scheveningen%2c_27_januari_1942%2527_uit_%2527Mijn_cel._Dagorde_van_een_gevangene%2527_van_Titus_Brandsma%2c_Kroonstraat_114%2c_Nijmegen.jpg)
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