A Mother’s Legacy

A Mother’s Legacy

What would you say in a last letter to your children?

IN APRIL 1573 Maeyken Wens was arrested along with four others as they met to study the Bible in Antwerp. Maeyken was the wife of an Anabaptist minister, Mattheus Wens, who by trade was a mason. The Anabaptists believed in believer’s baptism and later called themselves Mennonites after their leader Menno Simons.

After their arrest, they were bound and placed in prison under the most severe conditions. Maeyken was repeatedly interrogated by priests, who tried to get her to deny her beliefs. When intimidation didn’t work, they used torture. Still she would not deny her Lord.

Finally on October 5, 1573, Maeyken Wens and the four others arrested with her were sentenced to be burned at the stake. That day Maeyken wrote a final letter to her son Adriaen, a boy of about fifteen:

O my dear son, though I am taken from you here, strive from your youth to fear God, and you shall have your mother again up yonder in the New Jerusalem, where parting will be no more. My dear son, I hope now to go before you; follow me thus as much as you value your soul, for besides this there shall be found no other way to salvation. Thus, I will now commend you to the Lord; may he keep you. I trust the Lord will do it if you seek him. Love one another all the days of your life; take little Hans on your arm now and then for me. And if your father should be taken from you, care for one another. The Lord keep you one and all. My dear children kiss one another once for me, for remembrance. Adieu, my dear children all of you. My dear son, do not be afraid of this suffering; it is nothing compared to that which shall endure forever. The Lord takes away all fear; I did not know what to do for joy when I was sentenced. Hence cease not to fear God because of this temporal death; I cannot fully thank my God for the great grace which he has shown me. Adieu once more, my dear son Adriaen; ever be kind to your afflicted father all the days of your life, and do not grieve him; this I pray all of you, for what I write to the oldest, I also mean to say to the youngest. Herewith I will commend you to the Lord once more. I have written this, after I was sentenced to die for the testimony of Jesus Christ, on the fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1573.

Maeyken Wens

The following day Maeyken Wens and the other believers were prepared for execution. The executioner came to their cells and had them each stick out their tongues. He placed an iron clamp over the tongue, tightened it with a vice screw and then burned the tip of the tongue so it would swell and not be able to be pulled out of the clamp. These tongue screws prevented the victims from speaking out at their execution. Then the martyrs were marched to Antwerp’s marketplace.

Young Adriaen could not stay away from his mother’s execution and came, carrying three-year-old Hans, his youngest brother. However, when his mother was brought forward and tied to her stake, he fainted and didn’t regain consciousness until his mother and the others had been burned.

Adriaen lingered behind after everyone had left the marketplace and went to search the ashes where his mother had been burned. There he found her tongue screw.

Reflection

What is the legacy that you wish to pass on to your children and grandchildren? It might be worthwhile to write letters to your children and grandchildren explaining what you hold dear and what you wish them to take from you. Such a letter is sometimes referred to as an “ethical will” and can be of much more value to our descendants than the possessions they might receive from our last will and testament.

I know that you sincerely trust the Lord, for you have the faith of your mother, Eunice, and your grandmother, Lois.

2 Timothy 1:5