Dutch priest Titus Brandsma (1881-1942) was canonized by Pope Francis on Sunday in Rome. This happened during a special mass on Sint Pietersplein. It is the first time since 2007 that a Dutch person has been canonized.
Also read: Even during the occupation, the veneration of near-saint Titus Brandsma started
Brandsma was beatified by the Catholic Church in 1985 for his resistance against the Nazis. He died in 1942 in Dachau concentration camp. To be canonized, Brandsma had to be demonstrably responsible for a miracle. That was the cure for the American Carmelite Father Michael Driscoll, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of skin cancer in 2004. His community prayed for his recovery through Brandsma’s intercession. Driscoll was present at the canonization.
Protector
Because Brandsma has now been canonized, believers can turn to him during their prayers for help with their request to God. Saints are sometimes honored as protectors of a city or profession. Because Brandsma resisted Nazism and championed freedom of the press during World War II, a group of Catholic journalists from the Netherlands and Belgium want him to become the patron saint of journalism. Nothing has been decided on this yet.
Cardinal Wim Eijk (Archdiocese of Utrecht), Bishop Gerard de Korte (‘s-Hertogenbosch) and Bishop Ron van den Hout (Groningen-Leeuwarden) had traveled to the Vatican on behalf of the Dutch Roman Catholic Church.
The mayor of Nijmegen Hubert Bruls and Han van Krieken, rector of Radboud University, were also on Sint Pietersplein. They were present because of Brandsma’s past at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, where he was the first professor of philosophy and held the position of rector magnificus in the academic year 1932-1933.