Born in Bolsward in the Netherlands he was baptized Anno Sjoerd Brandsma. He joined the Carmelites in 1898 and took the religious name Titus. He was a professor of philosophy and active in journalism. He was vehemently opposed to Nazi ideology and spoke out against it many times before the Second World War. He was arrested in January 1942, when he tried to persuade Dutch Catholic newspapers not to print Nazi propaganda (as was required by the law of the Nazi German occupiers). He had also drawn up the Pastoral Letter, read in all Catholic parishes, by which the Dutch Roman Catholic bishops officially condemned the German anti-Semitic measures and the deportation of the first Jews. After this Pastoral Letter, the first few thousand Jews to be deported from the Netherlands were all Jewish converts to Roman Catholicism, including St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein). Titus Brandsma was killed by lethal injection in Dachau on July 26, 1942. Titus Brandsma, 0. Carm. was declared Blessed by Pope John Paul, II on November 1985.
Just prior to being killed, he wrote from his cell: “I already feel completely at home in this little cell. I haven’t been bored at all, in fact just the opposite. I am here alone, but never was our Lord so close to me. I could shout for joy that He has again let himself be found by me without me being able to be among people or people with me. He is now my only refuge and I feel safe and happy. I would like to stay here always, If He wills that. I have seldom been so happy and so content.”
Despite all the social changes of the past few years in Merida, respect still retains highest priority status in Merida. For traditional Yucatecans, it is so important to not publicly offend, criticize, or be scornful of another person’s choices or lifestyle. In most families, Mommy is cherished and Daddy is listened to with full attention. Children do not talk back cheekily to their parents or grandparents and elders are revered. Teachers are obeyed. Younger siblings are taken care of, neighbor’s idiosyncrasies are tolerated and passers-by are greeted in the streets; Buenos dias or Buenas tardes is always murmured as one walks by.
When a person comes into a room, they greet everyone there, often with kisses and endearments. If two people are speaking and another person comes into the room, the conversation stops and the newcomer is acknowledged. If someone is having a party and you bring an extra person (or persons) even without notifying your host, the extras are welcomed as though they were at the top of the guest list. We, in the USA, have lost so much of that ‘niceness” of daily living.
In the Holy Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 53, one reads:” Let all guests who arrive be received as Christ, because He will say: "I was a stranger and you took Me in" (Mt 25:35). And let due honor be shown to all, especially to those "of the household of the faith" (Gal 6:10) and to wayfarers“. I think that is why I like the Yucatan so much. They respect one another, and they see the person of Christ in all of humanity. Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus.
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