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St John of Cologne. John Heer, an eminent witness to Catholic truth and pastoral charity, was born in Cologne, Germany at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and entered the Order in his native …More
St John of Cologne.

John Heer, an eminent witness to Catholic truth and pastoral charity, was born in Cologne, Germany at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and entered the Order in his native city. He was sent to Holland, to serve as parish priest at Hoornaer, where Catholics were being subjected to severe persecution by the Calvinists. In 1572, Calvinist forces took the city of Gorcum and imprisoned its Catholic clergy; when Saint John went to minister to them, he was himself captured. They were all taken to Briel, where they were offered their freedom if they would deny the primacy of the Pope and abandon the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist; they refused and Saint John and was hanged, along with eighteen other priests and religious, on the night of 8/9 July 1572; their bodies were dismembered. They were beatified by Pope Clement X on 24 November 1675 and canonised by Pius IX on 29 June 1867. This stained glass window of St John is in St Dominic's church in San Francisco.

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