O holy Father, sanctify the children of thy handmaiden in thy truth, and keep them from all evil, and from all unrighteousness, for thy holy name’s sake. O almighty Father, I commend them unto you, since they are thy creatures; care for them, for they are thy handiwork; so that they may walk in thy paths. Amen.
MAEYKEN WENS, AND SOME OF HER FELLOW-BELIEVERS, BURNT FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST, AT ANTWERP, A. D. 1573.
The north wind of persecution blew now the longer the more through the garden of the Lord, so that the herbs and trees of the same (that is the true believers) were rooted out of the earth through the violence that came against them. This appeared, among other instances, in the case of a very godfearing and pious woman, named Maeyken Wens, who was the wife of a faithful minister of the church of God in the city of Antwerp, by the name of Mattheus Wens, by trade a mason. About the month of April, A. D. 1573, she, together with others of her fellow-believers, was apprehended at Antwerp, bound, and confined in the severest prison there. In the meantime she was subjected to much conflict and temptation by so-called spirituals (ecclesiastics), as well as by secular persons, to cause her to apostatize from her faith. But when she could by no manner of means, not even by severe tortures, be turned from the steadfastness of her faith, they, on the fifth day of October, 1573, passed sentence upon her, and pronounced it publicly in court at the aforementioned place, namely, that she should, with her mouth screwed shut, or with her tongue screwed up, be burnt to ashes as a heretic, together with several others, who were also imprisoned and stood in like faith with her.
Thereupon, the following day, the sixth of October, this pious and godfearing heroine of Jesus Christ, as also her fellow-believers that had been condemned with a like sentence, were brought forth, with their tongues screwed fast, as innocent sheep for the slaughter, and each having been fastened to a stake in the market place, deprived, by fierce and terrible flames, of their lives and bodies, so that in a short time they were consumed to ashes; which severe punishment of death they steadfastly endured; hence the Lord shall hereafter change their vile bodies, and fashion them like unto his glorious body. Philip. 3:21.
Further observation.
The oldest son of the aforementioned martyress, named Adriaen Wens, aged about fifteen years, could not stay away from the place of execution on the day on which his dear mother was offered up; hence he took his youngest little brother, named Hans (or Jan) Mattheus Wens, who was about three years old, upon his arm and went and stood with him somewhere upon a bench, not far from the stakes erected, to behold his mother’s death.
But when she was brought forth and placed at the stake, he lost consciousness, fell to the ground, and remained in this condition until his mother and the rest were burnt. Afterwards, when the people had gone away, having regained consciousness, he went to the place where his mother had been burnt, and hunted in the ashes, in which he found the screw with which her tongue had been screwed fast, which he kept in remembrance of her.
There are at present, 1659, several grandchildren (well known to us) still living of this pious martyress, who are named after her.
Touching the others, her fellow-believers, who were put to death with her, we are not able, because it is so long ago, to give their names, but it appears to us, that they are those who are mentioned in the next following account (that is, the women[336]) since it is stated of them, that they were, on the same day, namely the sixth of October, 1573, also put to death, at Antwerp, by fire. This by way of notice.