Saint Martin was born in Sabaria in 316, now called Hungary.

His parents called him after the Roman God Mars.

His father was a senior officer in the service of the Roman army.

As a 10 years old boy, Martin got interested in the Christian Faith.

While Martin was still a soldier at Amiens later, he experienced the vision that became the most-repeated story about his life.

He was at the gates of the city of Amiens with his soldiers when he met a scantily dressed beggar.

He impulsively cut his own military cloak in half and shared it with the beggar.

That night he dreamed of Jesus wearing the half-cloak Martin had given away.

He heard Jesus say to the angels: "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised; he has clad me.

On the picture St.Martin cuts off a part of his cloak by which he was the first "mantelzorger":).

Utrecht St. Maarten (Saint Martin)

On the picture you see St. Martin of Tours, the patron saint of Utrecht.

How came St. Maarten to Utrecht?

Well, in the Roman period in Germany lived a German nation called the Franks.

They tried to invade Holland several times but didn’t succeed.

After the Romans left Holland the invasion was successful about 476 AD.

The Franks have become Christians and started building churches in their empire.

So also in Utrecht, on the place where now the Dom Square is, by king Dagobert I in 630 AD.

The church was devoted to Saint Martin, the most important Saint of the Franks.

From that moment on you see everywhere sculptures or colours, that remind of Saint Martin, in Utrecht.

This sculpture is to be seen above the door of the Kloostergang from the Dom square side, and was lighted up during the Europa Cantate choir festival 2009.

Utrecht The Hermits: Suster Bertken

The most famous hermit in Utrecht was Sister Bertken.

Sister Bertken was born in Utrecht in the year 1426 or 1427 with the name Berta Jacobsdaughter and by that is meant Jacob van Lichtenberch.

Probably she chose for the life of a hermit because she had found out that she was a bastard. When she was 30 (1457) she was locked up in the hermitage of the Buur church and stayed there till her death in 1514 when she was 87 years old.

Her day plan consisted of praying, attending the mess, writing poems, advice people, doing needlework.

She lived a vegetarian life and her clothes consisted of a simple skirt and a coarse dress and naked feet without any form of heating in her hermitage.

In these times a renovation of the Buurkerk was planned and after her death the hermitage was pulled down and her grave destroyed. At another spot a new vault was made.

However, in 1579 also the holy cross choir was broken down and next to the Buurkerk the Choorstraat (Choirstreet) was erected.

In the Choorstreet Suster Bertken’s grave should be somewhere , but it is not for sure where it is exactly.

Now a stone is laid with the text: “Sister Bertken lived here as a hermit locked up in a niche in the bricked wall 1457-1514.wall

At the foot of the stone you see a map of the church and a golden dot shows the place where the hermitage should have been.

On the pictures the hermitage console corner Choorstraat/Vismarkt ; a book cover of Sister Bertken (Royal Library /Kon. Bibl.) and the grave stone in the Choorstraat

Utrecht The Hermits: In General

Sister Bertken (van Lichtenberg (1426/27-1514) is one of the most famous Utrecht women.

When she was about 30 years old she became a hermit (kluize-

nares).

In an other topic more about the person sister Bertken.

The first Christian hermits appeared by the end of the 3rd century.

One of the most well known hermits, and considered to be the first one, is St. Paul of Thebes (year 250).

The persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Decius was the reason that he flight into the desert to preserve the faith and to lead a life of penance and prayer.

In a hermitage, one secluded him/her self from the world to love only God entirely (‘soli Deo vacare’). It was considered as a higher way of the religion life.

A heritage should be small, and had two windows.

One window should have a view at the altar, and one window on the outside of the hermit to the seal hand over food and drinks and for the fresh air, for the door was sealed.

Only in case of illness it was allowed to break the seal and to open the door

A curtain hung in front of the windows for the people were not allowed to see the hermit.

Of course also in those times rules were made, so even for the hermitage.

The Church Meeting of Frankfurt in 794 decided that a hermit needed the approval of the bishop or an abbot.

A fixed rule was drawn up about the year 900, the Regula solitariorum, by the French priest Grimlaicus, a hermit himself.

In this document rules were mentioned about the way the hermitages should be build (see above) and so on.

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There was an impressive ceremony before someone was locked up in the hermitage.

It started with a mess and songs are sung among others the Veni Creator.

Then the person, who wanted to be a hermit, was urgently asked if it is still his/her wish to become a hermit. If so, she entered the hermitage and the door was closed.

The abbot or the head of a cloister guarded the keys. The door was indeed “hermetic” (hermetisch) closed.

In fact she was now in her coffin, for she was considered to be dead for the secular life.

That’s why also the Requiem is sung.

It will astonish you that a lot of people wished to be locked up.

There was even a waiting list, or more hermits were built.

Pictures made in the St.Jacobi Church in Utrecht

Utrecht Church Night & Church Cross

Friday 19 June the

"Church Night" was the opening of the project

“Visiting Churches in Utrecht”.

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The night was officially opened by the mayor.

The support came from the concert of the Cathedral Choir School Utrecht.

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After the opening in a lot of churches were all kind of activities.

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It’s no wonder that Utrecht has so many churches for in the Utrecht history the bishops and emperors played a big role in building churches, especially in the 11th century.

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The main five churches in the centre have - accidentally or not -

been built in the form of a Church Cross (see drawing above).

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The story tells that after the death of Koenraad II (+/- 990-1039) (Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire) his son Hendrik III ordered to built 4 churches around the St. Salvator (1010) (now the rebuilt Dom Church).

In fact around the hearth of his father, that was burried in the St. Salvator church.

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A more likely theory is that the place of the churches had everything to

do with the solid soil.

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These other four churches are the churches of St.Pieter (1048), St. Paulus Abby (1050), St.Marie (1085), St. Jan (1040)

Utrecht The Rainbow of Sint Pieter

In the past
(11th century)
in Utrecht were
“normal”
churches
for the citizens, and so called
“kapittel”
churches for the clergy, the canons (kanunniken).

Kings used to grant pieces of ground to such an abbey, cloister, or cathedral (kapittel church) with special rights.
Such an abbey or church, surrounded with their pieces of ground, formed a so called immunity.

The civil right didn’t count for these immunities.

They were immune for the secular (wereldse) life. Only the religion justice system counted, and no town council or police could do anything within these immunities

The immunities were separated from the rest of the city (and other communities) by walls and/or canals.

One of these immunities was the immunity of the Saint Pieter (1048) and this immunity was separated by a canal, now known as the Kromme Nieuwe Gracht.

The curve that you see is, that’s why, called “The Rainbow of St. Pieter” that surrounded a big part of the immunity.

Near the corner is a console of Jeannot Bürgi.

You see the city of Utrecht, the canals and of course the church the St.Pieter in the foreground. Above the city is a rainbow. Far above the cloudes is St. Pieter looking upstairs to heaven(?).

The only possibility to make this picture was from the water by the electric- or ”whisper” boat which makes regulary a beautiful trip throught the old small canals of the city.

Utrecht Pope Adrianus VI (3)

Before the building became Paushuize (the Pope’s House), it was a big building, for the first time mentioned in a document, dated 4 October 1360, in which it was passed over to the immunity of the Saint Pieter (N).

An immunity is a well traced area in which canons (kanunniken) live hidden from the view of the local authorities.

From one side it bordered to the immunity of the Dom and on the other part it bordered to the still existing Saint Pieter’s ditch, now the Kromme Nieuwe Gracht.

It knew several owners till 25 April 1517, when the building was sold to Adriaan Florensz Boeijens, the later Dutch Pope. He gave orders to rebuild the building, but has never seen it after that, by his more or less sudden death in Rome (15-09-1523).

Now it is the official building of the government of the Province Utrecht.

In the wall you can see a sculpture of Adrian VI.

Utrecht Pope Adrianus VI (2)

This picture has been taken in the Paushuize (Pope's House) in UTRECHT

POPE ADRIAN VI.(March 2, 1459 - September 14, 1523),
Was born at the Brandt alley (now –Brandtstreet) in Utrecht.

Adrian visited here a Latin school. In this time his father and his two elder brothers died.

With his uncle he had to take care of this mother.

When he was 19 years old he left for the University of Louvain (Leuven- Belgium). It was the start of a political and religion career.

More about the life of Adrian you can read here (N) or here (E).

When Adrian was elected as a Pope, the Utrecht population was enthusiastic but Adrian wasn’t. He first didn’t believe that he, son of a carpenter, would be a pope!

He is only convinced after receiving the documents. But he didn’t like the idea, especially not, since he was 62 years old and the atmosphere at the Vatican was below zero. The cardinals quarrelled and were more interested in boozing (zuipen), stuffing (vreten) themselves and exploiting whores.
They were not amused when they saw how modest and serious Adrian VI was.

After 12 months and two weeks Adrian died, probably because of the plague ( de pest) that ruled in Rome

Utrecht Pope Adrianus VI (1)

To day was a memorable day for the (Roman) Catholics.

It was the anniversary of the one and only Dutch-

and so also Utrecht - Pope Adrian VI.

The day started with a High Mass in the Catherine Cathedral, celebrated by Mgr. Wim Eijk, the present archbishop, and a symposium in the building of the Utrecht University.

Many guests arrived at the Dom place, among others the former arch bishop emeritus, also called Adrianus (Simonis) (on the picture with cap).

This day was also the start of many activities that will be generated as there are an exhibition of the famous painter Jan van Scorel, the treasurer of Pope Adrian VI (from March 20), guided tours through the Paushuize (the Pope’s House) that he bought in 1517 etc.

More about the Utrecht Pope Adrian VI in the following blogs.