By Aldo Leone
In 1345, Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, was just a small fishing village on the banks of the Amstel River. On the cold night of March 15, a few days before Palm Sunday, the parish priest was called to the bed of a sick man. Going promptly to the indicated house on present day Kalver Street, the minister of God gave the patient Extreme Unction and Holy Communion. A few moments after his departure, the violence of the illness caused the man to vomit into a basin, depositing the consecrated Host into the receptacle. Without checking for the Host, his wife or a nurse—it is not certain which—threw the contents of the basin into the fire burning in the hearth.
Returning to the sick man’s room before sunrise, the woman happened to glance at the fire, and was astonished to see the Eucharistic Bread hovering over the flames in perfect condition, as if just consecrated by the priest. She reached in and, without burning her hand, removed the Sacred Species from the fire and placed It in a chest. She immediately went to tell the priest who hurried to the site, retrieved the miraculous Host, and returned It to the church.
The next day, the woman opened the chest where she had previously placed the Sacred Host and to her wonder found It there once again! She hastily called the priest and he transferred It to the church a second time. But once more, the miracle was repeated.
God wanted the miraculous occurrence to be known
Seeing in this insistence a sign that God wanted the occurrence to be made known, the priest organized a solemn procession to return the Blessed Sacrament to the main church. The following year, the Bishop of Utrecht, Most Rev. Jan van Arkel, declared the authenticity of the miracle; and two years later a chapel was built at the site of the miracle.
A magnificent procession was established to commemorate the event every year in the middle of March. The Archduke Maximilian of Austria, later Emperor Maximilian I, is counted among the illustrious participants. However, this manifestation of popular devotion to the Blessed Sacrament was prohibited in 1578, when city administration fell into the hands of Calvinist burgomasters. They confiscated the chapel at the site of the miracle, and it was eventually demolished in 1908, despite the protests of Catholics, who offered to buy it.
During the prohibition of public worship, the celebration of Holy Mass and other Catholic acts of devotion were held in private homes or buildings without the external appearance of places of worship—secret churches, as they were known in the nineteenth century.
The Beguines
Chapel of the Beguines in Amsterdam, where daily Eucharistic Adoration is held in commemoration of the miracle that occurred in 1345
A chapel belonging to a group called the Beguines existed close to the site of the miracle. They were women, who, without taking the traditional vows of religious life, lived in community and dedicated themselves to prayer and aiding the sick, orphans, and the needy. Their rule only obliged them to observe obedience to the parish priest and celibacy while they remained in the community.
The Beguines’ chapel was also confiscated. Around 1665 they asked the municipality for permission to build a new one. Authorization was granted under the condition that the building maintain the characteristics of a secret church. Since that time, the chapel, dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. Ursula, has maintained daily Eucharistic Adoration in commemoration of the miracle that occurred in 1345. (The miraculous Host no longer exists. It began deteriorating two years after the miracle.)
The Silent Procession
According to the present chapel rector, Fr. Eugene van Heyst, S.S.S., in 1881 a man named Joseph Lousbergh discovered a document dating back to 1651, containing a detailed description of the medieval processions honoring this miracle.
He decided to follow the same route of the old procession, accompanied by a friend, as an act of adoration of the Eucharistic Jesus. They did this in silence, and without outward signs of devotion because of the restrictions on Catholic worship imposed by Calvinist authorities. Dutch Catholics enthusiastically took up the idea, and the number of faithful participating increased annually, giving rise to the Confraternity of the Silent Procession.
Every year, since that time, on the first Sunday after March 12, the silent procession is held between midnight and 4:00 A.M. the hours during which the miracle took place. Today, nearly 10,000 faithful participate annually, finding in this act of devotion a continuation of the Eucharistic Miracle of Amsterdam.
Taken from Heralds of the Gospel Magazine, January 2009. Used by permission.
