Blessed Titus Brandsma
(Bolsward
, February 23, 1881 – Dachau
July 26, 1942) was a Dutch
Carmelite priest and professor of philosophy. Brandsma was vehemently
opposed to
Nazi ideology and spoke out against it many times before
the
Second World War.
He was arrested in January 1942, when he tried to persuade Dutch
Catholic newspapers not to print Nazi
propaganda (as was required by law of the Nazi German occupiers).
He had also drawn up a Pastoral Letter read in all Catholic
parishes, by which the Dutch Roman Catholic bishops officially
condemned the German anti-Semitic measures and the deportation of
the first Jews. In the Pastoral Letter, the Dutch Bishops also
outlined
Nazism was incompatible with
Catholicism in its core ideology.
After this Pastoral Letter, the first ca. 3,000 Jews to be deported
from the Netherlands were all Jewish converts to
Roman Catholicism.
Brandsma was
transferred in February 1942 to the concentration camp Dachau on June 13, after being held
prisoner in Scheveningen, Amersfoort
, and Cleves
.
He died on
July 26, 1942, by a
lethal injection administered by a doctor
of the Allgemeine
SS
.
Brandsma
was born at Bolsward, Netherlands
in 1881. He was baptized Anno Sjoerd Brandsma. He joined the
Carmelites on
September 17,
1898, and took the religious name Titus.
Ordained a priest in 1905, Brandsma was knowledgeable in Carmelite
mysticism and was awarded a
doctorate in philosophy at Rome in 1909. He then taught in various
schools in the Netherlands. Among his accomplishments was a
translation of the works of
Saint
Teresa of Ávila into Dutch.
One of the
founders of the Catholic University of Nijmegen (now Radboud
University
), Brandsma became a professor of philosophy and the
history of mysticism at the school in 1923. He later served
as Rector Magnificus. He was noted for his constant availability to
everyone.
Fr. Brandsma also worked as a journalist and was the ecclesiastical
adviser to Catholic journalists by 1935. It was his fight against
the spread of Nazi ideology and for educational and press freedom
that brought him to the attention of the Nazis.
Brandsma's
documentation on Middle Dutch mysticism
was the basis for the current Titus Brandsma Institute in
Nijmegen
, dedicated
to the study of spirituality.
Titus Brandsma is honored as a
martyr within
the Roman Catholic Church. He was
beatified in November 1985 by
Pope John Paul II. His Feast Day is 27
July.
In 2005,
Titus Brandsma was chosen by the inhabitants of Nijmegen as the
greatest citizen to have lived there.
References
External links
Wikis
Map
Search
