City preacher Arnol Kox has had his own path in Eindhoven since Good Friday. This is a path between Strijpsestraat and Sint Severusstraat that is within walking distance of Sint Trudo cemetery. Kox has his final resting place there. Arnol died in 2020 at the age of 67. He had been ill for a while, but remained a fixture in the city center of Eindhoven.
Only a few have the opportunity to have a street named after you after your death. Yet that is what happened on Friday. The Arnol Koxpad was unveiled amid great interest.
It is no coincidence that it happened exactly on Good Friday. For at least forty years, Arnol stood in the center of the city, proclaiming the message of God with a booming voice. He did this so hard and with such conviction that he was soon nicknamed ‘Scream Jesus’.
Arnol met his wife Gerry Diederen in the Paterskerk in Eindhoven. For her, the unveiling on the religious holiday was a special moment. “Exactly two years ago was the presentation of the beer named after him. And now the opening of the path. I could never have imagined that. He was who he was. Just himself. He did not blow with the wind and was convinced of himself. And of course he was also present in the city. He belonged.”
Sancha Schuurs also thought so. She lives near the path and is behind the idea of having an Arnol Kox path constructed. “He lived in Strijp. His final resting place is close by. People had already placed street signs with him on them. They were removed. I thought that was ridiculous. He deserves a tribute, so that’s why I wanted this path.”
Colored signs along the path contain sayings from the town preacher, even in his own handwriting. “Do you want to live now, or do you want to live after you die?” Another sign reads: ‘Growing old is fun when you’re young, but growing old isn’t so fun when you’re old.’ After the street sign was unveiled, everyone could take a tour of the path.
Deputy Mayor Remco van Dooren was one of them and remembers Kox personally. “As a little boy I walked through the city center and you not only saw Arnol Kox, you heard him coming from afar. I especially remembered the text: ‘With men it is masculine, with women it is feminine and with the Lord it is wonderful’, I have long remembered it.”
While Arnol was loved by many, some did not like him. “He was a bird of paradise and certainly not a saint. He received quite a few fines, for example for feeding pigeons or leaving waste lying around. He did not always follow the rules very closely. But that also made Arnol Kox. He continued tirelessly,” Van Dooren says.
By the way, the Arnol Koxpad cannot be found in the Eindhoven street map. The path was unofficially opened. Streets in Eindhoven can only be named after people ten years after someone has died.
