Prayer to Saint Titus Brandsma — Carmelite, journalist, martyr of Dachau

Dutch Carmelite priest, born in Oegeklooster (Friesland) on 23 February 1881. University professor, writer and founder of the Union of Catholic Journalists of the Netherlands, he publicly opposed Nazism from 1935. In 1942 he received from the Dutch Episcopate the task of forbidding Catholic newspapers to publish Nazi propaganda: for this he was arrested by the Gestapo on 19 January 1942 and deported to Dachau, where he was killed by lethal injection on 26 July 1942. Beatified by St John Paul II on 3 November 1985, and canonised by Pope Francis on 15 May 2022 — declared by the Pope patron of Catholic journalists. Feast: 27 July.

God our Father, who gave to your servant Saint Titus Brandsma, Carmelite, the grace to labour zealously in your vineyard and to offer his life freely for faith in you and for the freedom of the Christian word against the ideology that enslaves: by his example and intercession, grant that we too, in our time, may bear witness with radicality to Christian love and to the values of the Gospel, and that our lives may be seeds of reconciliation and forgiveness. Mary, Mother of Carmel, pray for us. Saint Titus Brandsma, Carmelite martyr, intercede for us. Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.