One of Amsterdam’s best kept secrets is how the city was first put on the European map in the 14th century through a miracle.
While many Amsterdammers know nothing about this event, for Dutch Catholics it is no secret. In fact, tonight, after midnight, 7000 of them from all over the Netherlands will be walking in quiet procession through the inner city to commemorate the event, pausing to pray at preset stations. I plan to join this annual event myself tonight.
News spread of this miracle as far as Rome, where the pope declared Amsterdam to be a pilgrim city. That was almost like winning the Olympic Games for your town. It meant that tens of thousands of pilgrims would now visit Amsterdam, a place where God had turned up. Many pilgrim hostels had to be opened. And the first hospitals too for with so many visitors from all over a Europe plagued with pestilence, these were no luxury.
A pilgrimage could earn the pilgrim reprieve from time in purgatory, or fiorgiveness of particular sins, or could be embarked upon in gratitude for answered prayer, for healing, for example. Among the pilgrims who came to the Miracle City were two Holy Roman Emperors, Maximilian (15th century) and Charles V (16th century).
So what was this miracle?
The year is 1345. According to tradition, a sick man living in what is now the main shopping street of the city, the Kalverstraat, is seriously ill and fears he is dying. So the priest is sent for to come from the Oude Kerk (then called St Nicolas Church) to administer the eucharist. That involves consecrating the host or communion wafer which, according to the Catholic doctrine of ‘transubstantiation’, beomes the literal body of Christ. After receiving the consecrated host, the man vomits everything up, host and all. The maid dutifully cleans up the mess, throws it into the fire.
Variations of the story have developed over the centuries. One version states that the maid discovers the host in the ashes the next morning, totally unscathed. So she puts it in a small casket and takes it back to the priest at the Oude Kerk, less than one kilometer across town.
Another version explains how the consecrated host actually hovers above the flames and the maid can immediately retrieve it with her bare hands without burning herself. The priest is then summoned to take the host back to the church. After all, who would want to simply dispose of the actualy body of Christ?’ The next day, however, the maid discovers the host back in the fireplace in the Kalverstraat!
Once more the priest is summoned to fetch the host and takes it back to the church. Yet, once more, the next morning, the host reappears in the sick man’s fireplace. Three times, the story goes, the host miraculously reappears in the fireplace.
The priest, realising something truly supernatural was happening, reported the events to his superiors, and had the Eucharistic Body of the Lord carried back along the same route from the house to the church in a solemn procession with other clergy. The Bishop of Utrecht ordered an official investigation and one year later, with Rome’s blessing, proclaimed the miracle’s credibility.
The Solemnity of the Blessed Sacrament was then established as an annual Feast Day for the whole town including the yearly repetition of the Miracle Procession. Amsterdam thus became a Miracle City, a pilgrim city, attracting the faithful from far and near.
A chapel was later built on the site of the miracle, called the Heilige Stede, the Holy Place. To this day, the pilgrime route leading into the town centre is still called the Heilige Weg, the Holy Way.
The emperor’s crown
In the late 15th century, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian visited Amsterdam as a pilgrim. Grateful for his recovery from illness, he granted Amsterdam the right to incorporate his crown into its coat of arms. (Or, as some suggest, in return for generous loans from the city for financing his wars).
Whatever the case, Maximilian’s crown can be seen all over the city as a reminder of the Miracle adorning the city’s triple-cross symbol, on top of the street lanterns, on bridges, and atop the tower of the Westerkerk. This long before the Netherlands ever became a monarchy.
The tradition of the Miracle Procession was abruptly ended in 1578 when the Amsterdam city council decided to convert to Protestantism. Open Catholic services were forbidden and Mass was said in clandestine churches. Low key celebrations continued out of the public eye for some three centuries, until in 1881, after Catholics were emancipated, the tradition was revived.
A clandestine church (photo above) in the Begijnhof (Beguines’ courtyard) is devoted to the Miracle of Amsterdam and will be one of several starting points for tonight’s procession. In the English Reformed Church right opposite in the courtyard, we will hold the second of nine Geloof in Mokum (Faith in Amsterdam) events in this 750th anniversary year, to commemorate this 14th century expression of faith which truly put the city on the European map.
Dutch TV presenter, Jurjen ten Brinke, will interview Father Gerard Wijers about the Miracle and its consequences for the city. In answer to the question, ‘can a modern person believe in miracles?’, Jurjen will tell his own story of healing as a baby diagnosed with an open back even before he was born.
All are welcome at this Dutch-language event, starting at 15.30.
Till next week,
