Titus Brandsma

Saint Titus Brandsma was born Anno Sjoerd Brandsma on February 23, 1881, at Oegeklooster near Hartwerd in Friesland, the Netherlands, into a devout Catholic farming family. At eleven he began studies for the priesthood, and in 1898 entered the Carmelite Order at Boxmeer, taking the name Titus. Ordained in 1905, he pursued a deep love for Carmelite mysticism, earning a doctorate in philosophy in Rome and dedicating himself to teaching, writing, and translating the works of Saint Teresa of Ávila into Dutch. A founder and later rector of the Catholic University of Nijmegen, he was remembered as a professor who was tirelessly available to others. As a journalist and adviser to Catholic newspapers, he courageously resisted Nazi ideology and defended the freedom of the press. In 1942, after delivering the Dutch bishops’ directive not to publish Nazi propaganda, he was arrested and eventually sent to Dachau, where he was murdered by lethal injection on July 26, 1942. Honored as a martyr, he was canonized in 2022 and is a patron of journalists. His feast day is July 27.