In elementary school I was taught about the founding legend of my city of birth, Venlo. The story went that the leader of a local tribe, the Bructeri, fled a lost battle with the rival Chamavi tribe towards the fertile ground on the Meuse river in 96 AD.

In remembrance of this chief, called Valuas, giant dolls of him and his wife had been carried around the city for ages, and all kinds of companies, schools and clubs had been named after him. Valuas was Venlo.

Recently though I learned it’s all a crock, and all it took was a visit to Wikipedia. There is no such legend. Instead, the story was made up in its entirety in the 18th century, because the bishop of Roermond wanted to outlaw the use of dolls depicting Goliath and his wife in processions.

With Goliath given a new, non-religious identity, the bishop could no longer object to what was basically idolatry. Today, the local ceremonial shooting club, Akkermansgilde, still carries giant dolls of Valuas and his wife Guntrud around in processions and during carnival.

(Photo of Venlo city hall by Wikimedia user Michiel1972, some rights reserved.)

There are only a few steps to holiness according to Roman Catholic creed, and beatification is the penultimate one. On June 29, Sister Hendrina Stenmanns of the Servants of the Holy Spirit mission congregation in Steyl will be the second person to be beatified on Dutch soil (though not the second Dutch person to befall that honour). The Pope will be represented during the ceremony at the open air theatre of Tegelen, Limburg by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins.

At least one miracle: that’s what it takes to be beatified. In May 1991, when Pope John Paul II declared that Sister Hendrina had fulfilled all other obligations, and all that needed to be done was wait for a miracle, which later came to light had apparently already happened in 1985 when a young Brazilian survived an operation after a nurse had prayed to Sister Hendrina.

Hendrina Stenmanns was one of the founders of one of the four mission congregations of Steyl. That once thousands of missionaries a year lived and studied in this small village on the steep East bank of the river Meuse at Tegelen to be sent out over the world has made this one of the quaintest places in the country. Steyl is hidden from the main road and therefore from view by the small city of Tegelen, and somebody passing through would likely miss it. Only if you approach it from across the river can you see the village in its full, oversized splendour.

The village of 3,000 inhabitants contains four large monasteries, and an even larger number of churches, among which the church of St. Michael with its two floors, so that two masses could be held at once for the many student missionaries. There’s also a botanical garden and a Mission Museum (1931) that’s kept in its original state, a museum of a museum as some would have it. As a child I’d go there just for the giant stuffed and mechanised bear just inside the entrance. If you fed it a coin the machinery would spring to life and make the creature move its arms.

The Dutch word for beatified, by the way, is “zalig,” which is also used as a synonym for good or delicious in the South and in Flanders. In English, the Germanic root of the word, gesælig, evolved to mean foolish, frivolous: silly.

Via Blik op Nieuws (Dutch). Photo by hifi_ninja, some rights reserved.

Pastor Harm Schilder of the Heilige Margarita Maria church parish in Tilburg was fined 5,000 big ones (euro) today and already another 5,000 big ones last Friday because his bell rings too loud. Too loud means 80 decibels instead of 70 decibels, which in laymen’s terms is the difference between a car and a noisy factory. Nevertheless, when the bell hits you very early at 7:15 am, I can imagine it’s loud.

The pastor was told by his boss the bishop not to ring the bell until they get the volume fixed. Stay tuned until next Friday.

(Link: Omroep Brabant)