“He who wants to win the world for Christ must have the courage to come in conflict with it.”

Titus Brandsma

Titus Brandsma, 0. Carm. was declared Blessed by Pope John Paul, II on November 1985. Since then, the promotion of his cause for sainthood has been in progress. An Interprovincial Committee of Carmelites exists, here in the United States, to educate and inform the Body of Christ as to its progress.

Titus Brandsma, Dutch priest, educator, journalist and modern mystic, has much to say to Twenty-first Century Christians. His joyful countenance in the face of chronic illness and finally, at the torturous hands of the Nazi’s, is a study in humankind’s sharing of its portion of the Cross of Christ. The frail, bookishlooking clergyman with the big cigar, labeled “That dangerous little friar” by his enemies, was able to perform heroic acts of suffering, followed by forgiveness, because his faith and trust in God was so firmly rooted in prayer. Unlike Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who made a deliberate commitment of her life as an atonement for sin, Father Brandsma did not seek martyrdom, yet when he was thoroughly convinced it was God’s Will, he was able to accept humiliation and even death.

It is the Committee’s hope that the following web pages will serve as an educational instrument in enlightening our readers to the life and contributions of this extraordinary human being.