Three influences on the spiritual experience of Titus Brandsma in the Lager

Abstract

This article introduces the three main inspirational figures that were very important in the spiritual journey of Titus Brandsma during the last months of his life in the numerous jails and concentration camps where he was imprisoned. These three “models” form the spiritual background of the Carmelite and explain his fraternal, evangelical, and elegant way of dealing with everybody in that hell of the concentration world. The three elements are the spirituality of Teresa of Avila, in which Titus Brandsma was a real expert and the translator of her works into Dutch; the spirituality of the passion of Christ, as expressed in the Way of the Cross of the expressionist Belgian artist Albert Servaes, and the work of Gert Grote, considered founder of the Devotio Moderna. In conclusion, the author links this background with both the Italian novelist Mario Debenedetti and Zoran Mušič’s famous paintings.