Nicholas Pieck

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
9 July
AttributesFranciscan habit

Nicholas Pieck, O.F.M., "Nicolaas" or "Claes Pieck" in Dutch, was a

lay brothers, the Martyrs of Gorkum
, who were executed for refusal to renounce their faith in 1572.

Life

He was born in the town of Gorkum (now

friary in that town. Nicholas was ordained a priest in 1558, devoting himself to the apostolic ministry. He was appointed Guardian of the friary in Gorkum, his native town.[1]

Pieck preached against

Watergeuzen, who retained 19 of the clergy as prisoners although they had promised to let the inhabitants depart from the town without being molested.[2] For reprisals, because of the city's determined defense, they gathered all the members of the clergy in Gorkum into one prison and took out their grievances against the Spanish crown on the priests and religious.[3]

Pieck and eight other Franciscan friars were confined in a dark and foul dungeon[1] where they were tortured. Taking the cord which Pieck wore around his waist and putting it around his neck, they first suspended him from a beam and then let him fall heavily to the ground. This torture was continued until the cord broke, and Father Nicholas fell to the ground unconscious.[4] Pieck's two brothers tried to obtain his release, but the guardian would not leave the others.[2] Other priests were captured, bringing the total to 19.

On 6 July they were thrown half-naked into the hold of a ship and removed to Brielle.

Real Presence. None did. Despite instructions from Prince William the Silent to spare them, and protests from the magistrates of Gorkum,[3] the members of the group were hanged on 9 July 1572 in an old barn at the deserted Ruggen Monastery on the outskirts of Briel. The execution was clumsily handled; it took two hours for some of them to strangle.[5] They became known as the Martyrs of Gorkum
.

Veneration

Stained glass windows at the Hofkerk (Amsterdam) [nl] with Nicolaas Poppel [nl] and Nicholas Pieck (right)

Nicholas and his companions were beatified by

Pius IX, 29 June 1867.[1] For many years the place of their martyrdom in Brielle has been the scene of numerous pilgrimages and processions.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c Heckmann, Ferdinand. "St. Nicholas Pieck." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 29 May 2013
  2. ^ a b Habig O.F.M., Marion. The Franciscan Book of Saints, Franciscan Herald Press, 1959
  3. ^ a b c Schaeffer, Fred. Holiness in Holland, 2001 Archived 2013-07-03 at archive.today
  4. ^ Heckmann, Ferdinand. "St. Nicholas Pieck." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 1 April 2016]
  5. ISBN 978-0-86716-887-7
  6. ^ Albers, Petrus Henricus. "The Martyrs of Gorkum." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 29 May 2013
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