Catharina and Lijsbeth Somerhuys (Anabaptist Martyrs – Burned at the stake June 16th 1571)
The Somerhuys family lived in Deventer, on the Brink River in Overijssel, Netherlands. Catharina and Lijsbeth, mature young women of about eighteen and twenty, were the first to make their commitment to Christ. The parents were impressed with their daughters’ step of faith and observed the new joy and order of their lives. Then Albert and his wife came to the daughters and said that they too would confess Christ as only Lord and would be baptized with them.
The young women were overjoyed. The family prayed together, shared their mutual faith in study of the New Testament, and at the next meeting of the congregation asked for the “covenant sign” of baptism. The whole family came into the fellowship of the church together.
Their freedom to enjoy the new fellowship was short-lived. On March 11th 1571, they were arrested and led to prison in the Noordenberger tower. Within the tower, they were suspended from their hands which were tied overhead with heavy iron weights or cannon balls tied to their feet. Catharina and Lijsbeth did not surrender their faith. They encouraged one another by word of faith, by prayer, and by songs. They took the young Catharina and, tying her clothes together in the middle, bared most of her body and then mocked her. Of this experience Catharina said, “Never was such shame inflicted upon me.”
On June 16th 1571, in the early morning Catharina and Lijsbeth were led out of the prison to the market place. They were cheerful and smiled to each other with assurance. As they were being taken to the scaffold the two young women took hold of each other’s hands, kissed each other and began to sing, “My God, whither shall I go?” They were tied to separate stakes with two other men and women.
Suddenly there was a strange loud noise like a roll of thunder or a great wagon rolling down the cobblestone street from the direction of the Brink River. The sound struck fear into the crowd. The drummers began to sound an alarm, but the noise passed and no one knew what act of providence this was.
Now wood and straw were piled around the stakes until only the prisoners’ heads could be seen. The Spaniards then brought two baskets of books they had taken from several of the Anabaptists homes and piled them on the wood. As the fires were lit, the life of the church was again sealed with the blood of the martyrs.
From prison Ydse Gaukes had written letters for the group expressing their faithfulness to Christ in trial.
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