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On Saturday March 8, Fr. Roderick spoke about podcasting and the gift of the Eucharist at a youth event in the Moses and Aaron Church in Amsterdam. Later that night, he joined thousands of pilgrims during a Silent Procession through the streets of the capital to commemorate the ‘Miracle of Amsterdam’.

The website ‘katholieknederland.nl‘, the website of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands, posted an amazing webvideo of the event: click here!

Fr. Roderick

Here is some information from the official website of the ‘Stille Omgang’:

Amsterdam, miracle city

Amsterdam has been a place of pilgrimage since the Middle Ages. According to tradition, on 15 March 1345, a man lay seriously ill in his house on the Kalverstraat. Thinking he was about to die he called for a priest to administer the last rites, including the Blessed Sacrament. After receiving the host, the man became sick and finally vomited. As was the custom, what he had brought up was thrown in the fire.

The next morning the host was discovered undamaged in the ashes. It was put into a box and taken by a priest to the parish church (the present-day Oude Kerk), but on two occasions miraculously made its way back to the house on the Kalverstraat. This was the beginning of the tradition known in Amsterdam as the Miracle Procession, since people had taken it as a sign that they should spread word of what had happened.

Center of pilgrimage

Some years later a chapel was built on the site of the miracle. The veneration of this medieval miracle meant that Amsterdam became an important center of pilgrimage and people came from far and wide to take part in the large and magnificent Procession.

However, in 1578 Amsterdam city council decided to convert to Protestantism. Catholic services were forbidden and Mass was said in clandestine churches. But the tradition of the Miracle was so important to the people of Amsterdam that during the 17th and 18th centuries they managed to perpetuate its annual celebration and veneration on a limited scale. The tradition was continued by a small group in the clandestine church in the Béguinage and individuals walked the route previously taken by the Procession.

The Route

When the Catholic faith was restored in the 19th century, the ever growing desire for emancipation among Catholics led to the plan for the Silent Procession launched in 1881. The idea originated among a group of friends, all laymen, and developed into the present day tradition, which is in fact the continuation of the Miracle Procession. Every year thousands of people from all over the country take part in the Silent Procession. Most of them are Catholics, but there is growing interest among fellow Christians. People walk, cycle or come by bus or car to Amsterdam to join in the procession, which culminates in a Mass said in one of the parish churches of the city.