A few days before Palm Sunday on 15 March 1345 a man in the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam received the Sacred Host when a priest administered the Sacrament of the Sick to him. In his sickness he vomited, expelling the Host which was caught in a basin and thrown on to the fire, where it was seen to float above the flames.
Centuries after this event Anton van Duinkerken described it in a sonnet: “The Host, thrown away into the fire, kept floating unhurt among the flames. The force of grace appeared to be stronger than nature”.
A woman stretched out her hand into the flames, seized the Host from the fire without burning herself, and put it in a case.
The priest of the parish church, now known as the Oude Kerk (old church) was sent for. He took the Host back with him to the church. Next morning the woman in the house in the Kalverstraat opened the case and saw, to her amazement, that the Host was back inside. Immediately she sent for the priest again; again he took the Host back to the church. The next day, for the third time, the Host was back in the case in the sick man’s room.
It was only then that people understood that God wanted this miracle to be made public. This time, when the parish priest came for the Host, he bore it back to the Oude Kerk in a solemn procession. The following year Bishop Jan van Arkel declared this to be a genuine miracle.
Within two years a church (Ter Heylighen Stede: at the holy stead) was built on the very spot where the miracle had taken place. In mid-March people joined in procession to take the Holy Sacrament through the streets of Amsterdam, and a stream of pilgrims began to come to the chapel to celebrate the Miracle of the Sacrament. This ‘Roman’ procession came to an end in 1578 because of the town administration passing to the reformed faith (the Alteration); Catholics were no longer allowed to profess their faith openly.
The complete story of the Miracle of Amsterdam can also be told on the basis of a large painting in the chapel of the Beguinage: nine panels by the painter Schenk.
A few days before Palm Sunday on 15 March 1345 a man in the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam received the Sacred Host when a priest administered the Sacrament of the Sick to him. In his sickness he vomited, expelling the Host which was caught in a basin and thrown on to the fire, where it was seen to float above the flames.
The priest of the parish church, now known as the Oude Kerk (old church) was sent for. He took the Host back with him to the church. Next morning the woman in the house in the Kalverstraat opened the case and saw, to her amazement, that the Host was back inside. Immediately she sent for the priest again; again he took the Host back to the church. The next day, for the third time, the Host was back in the case in the sick man’s room.
Within two years a church (Ter Heylighen Stede: at the holy stead) was built on the very spot where the miracle had taken place. In mid-March people joined in procession to take the Holy Sacrament through the streets of Amsterdam, and a stream of pilgrims began to come to the chapel to celebrate the Miracle of the Sacrament. This ‘Roman’ procession came to an end in 1578 because of the town administration passing to the reformed faith (the Alteration); Catholics were no longer allowed to profess their faith openly.