Portrait by Berthold Pluum He was listed under “Other Saints” on the Universalis:Today site that designated today as simply Wednesday of week 17 of the year. I had never heard of Titus (Anno) Brandsma, but his birth in Friesland, Holland (place of my family’s origin), work as a journalist, and contemplative spirituality (He was a Carmelite priest.) piqued my curiosity. I googled his name and found numerous sites that provided information on this man who, along with the Dutch Church, refused to accept Nazi orders for Catholic newspapers to print Nazi articles and who eventually paid for public resistance with his life.
Perhaps journalists who work for Catholic newspapers or magazines know of this man. If not, I will do my part to introduce him. An interesting biography including photos appears on a Carmelite website. The same website hosts a series of short essays or meditations on his life written by social worker, Jane Lytle-Vieira, a member of the Carmelites Third Order and a graduate studying theology.
Titus (Anno took his father’s name for his religious name.) was a man of deep spirituality but, like Karl Rahner, did not find mysticism something reserved for the few or for those called to cloistered life. His relationship with God, nurtured by contemplative prayer, enabled him to live involved in the world, its politics, and its need. He understood life to be lived in service to others, and according to those who knew him, he gave freely to all with a joyful spirit. Some saw his generosity as a fault. He gave so much that one friend said if everyone lived as Titus lived the rich would soon be poor and the poor would become rich!
Blessed Titus was an educator, receiving his doctorate in philosophy from the Georgian University in Rome. He became a founding member of the Catholic University of Nijmegen in 1923, and served as President, of the University in 1932-33. After this the bishop appointed him spiritual director to the staff of the thirty Catholic publications throughout the country. Later, Titus toured the United States, lecturing at all the Carmelite foundations in 1935.
Not many years after returning home, Titus along with the rest of the Dutch people began suffering under the invasion of the Nazis. In both his writing and preaching, Titus refused to follow their directives. When the Dutch Church decided to instruct the editors of all its newspapers and magazines to refuse to publish Nazi articles and propaganda, Titus insisted on informing each editor and staff himself.
This very public display of resistance resulted in his arrest, imprisonment and eventual transfer to Dachau, where he was beaten, tortured, and after being part of medical experimentation, was put to death by lethal injection.
The links I have provided will take you to sites that include comments about Titus during his lifetime and his time in Dachau by fellow prisoners. As Jane Lytle-Vieira suggests in her meditations, Titus has much to say to Christians living in 2011. Whether the issue is politics and religion, serving the poor, prayer, life in prison, or capital punishment, this marketplace mystic speaks to us through his life. I encourage you to read about him and celebrate the grace God has given through him.
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