Stained glass window from St. Dominic’s Church in Washington, D.C. Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.

John of Gorkum (d. 1572), a Dominican priest, was one of nineteen religious who were hanged by militant Calvinists in Holland for defending Church teaching. In 1572 the town of Gorkum had just been captured by the Gueux, an extremist group of Dutch Calvinists who had continued a war of independence from Spain through acts of piracy. Hearing of the local priests’ plight, John left the safety of his parish and went to Gorkum in disguise to give whatever assistance he could. Several times he entered the town to administer the Sacrament to priests who were being cruelly tortured. Eventually he too was taken prisoner and tortured. Although the priests had been offered their freedom in return for denying Catholic teaching on Eucharistic and papal primacy, they refused to do so. The site of their martyrdom soon became a place of pilgrimage.

The above excerpt is from Reflections of Dominican Spirituality: The Windows of St. Dominic Church, Washington, D.C. by Dr. Mary Moran.