.::FREAK OF THE WEEK: Walled In
by
Matthew
on Fri 27 Jan 2006 03:00 AM PST
Wrunken · Ronses, Flanders · 1500s
“I found one!” The Inquisitor held up the forbidden book as
he called to his assistant. “Bring in the mayor and his family. Someone is
studying the Bible in this house!”
In the 16th century, Philip II sent the Duke of
Alba to Flanders to stamp out the Protestants
who insisted on reading the Scriptures in their own language. Anyone found
studying the Bible was hanged, drowned, torn in pieces, or burned alive at the
stake.
The Inquisitors had found the Bible while inspecting the
house of the Mayor of Brugge. One by one, family members were questioned, but
everyone claimed they knew nothing about how the Bible got to their house.
Finally the officials asked the young maid-servant, Wrunken,
who boldly declared, “I am reading it!”
The mayor, knowing the penalty for studying the Bible, tried
to defend her, saying, “Oh, no, she only owns it. She doesn’t ever read from
it.”
But Wrunken chose not to be defended by a lie. “This book is
mine. I am reading from it, and it is more precious to me than anything.”
She was sentenced to die by suffocation. A place would be
hollowed in the city wall, she would be tied in it, and the opening would be
bricked over.
On the day of her execution, as she stood by the wall, an
official tried to get her to change her mind, saying, “So young and
beautiful—and yet to die.”
Wrunken replied, “My Savior died for me, I will also die for
Him.”
As the bricks were laid higher and higher, she was warned
again. “You will suffocate and die in here.”
“I will be with Jesus,” she answered.
Finally, the wall was finished, except for the one brick
that would cover her face. For the last time, the official tried to persuade
her. “Repent—just say the word and you will go free.”
But Wrunken refused, saying instead, “O Lord, forgive my
murderers.”
The brick was put in place. Many years later, her bones were
removed from the wall and buried in the cemetery of Brugge.
Wrunken trusted her life to Jesus, knowing that the end of
her life on earth was not the end of her life.
“So we always have courage. We know that while we live in
this body, we are away from the Lord. We live by what we believe, not by what
we can see… We really want to be away from this body and be at home with the
Lord. Our only goal is to please God whether we live here or
there."
Paul the Apostle
Martyred in Rome,
65AD
(2 Corinthians 5:6-9 NCV)
Taken
from "Jesus Freaks" by DC Talk and Voice of the Martyrs, Bethany
House Publishers, 1999.
http://www.jesusfreaks.net
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