St. Titus Brandsma was born on the farm of Oegeklooster, near Bolsward, in the Netherlands, on February 23, 1881. His baptismal name was Anno Sjoerd. His father, Titus, was a well-off farmer, married to Tjitsje Postma; they had six children, four girls and two boys, of whom one married and the others became religious.

Between 1892 and 1898, Anno Sjoerd attended the Franciscan gymnasium in Megen, North Brabant. He felt a growing vocation within him and wanted to join the Franciscans, but he was not accepted because of his poor health, which would not have allowed him to endure the harshness of Franciscan life.

He then turned to the Carmelites, who accepted him: on 22 September 1898 he entered the novitiate in Boxmeer. In homage to his father, he took the religious name of Titus. At the end of the novitiate year, he took his religious vows on 3 October 1899.

Between 1900 and 1905 he attended courses in philosophy and theology in the communities of Boxmeer, Zenderen and Oss. In 1901 he published his first book: an anthology of the writings of Saint Teresa of Jesus, which he himself had translated from the French, entitled Bloemlezing uit de werken der H. Teresia ( Anthology of the works of Saint Teresa ) .

On June 17, 1905, at the age of 24, he was ordained a priest in the cathedral of Den Bosch, in Brabant. He was then sent to Rome, to the International College of Saint Albert, where he remained for three years, from 1906 to 1909. He attended the Faculty of Philosophy of the Pontifical Gregorian University and also took courses in sociology at the Leonine Institute. In the meantime, he continued his collaboration with several Dutch newspapers and magazines. During the summer holidays he stayed in Mainburg, Bavaria. During that period he suffered from a relapse of a stomach disease and, to recover, was sent for some time to the convent of Albano Laziale. On October 25, 1909, he was able to pass the doctoral examination.

Having returned to Holland, he began teaching philosophy and mathematics at the Carmelite student house in Oss, where he remained from 1909 to 1923. In 1912 he founded the periodical Karmelrozen ( Roses of Carmel , later to become Speling ) and in 1918 he began publishing the works of Saint Teresa in Dutch in several volumes. From 1919 to 1923 he was editor-in-chief of the newspaper De Stad Oss ( The City of Oss ).

In 1923 he became professor of philosophy and history of mysticism at the newly founded Catholic University of Nijmegen, where he remained until 1942.

In the academic year 1932-1933 he was elected Rector Magnificus of the same University and, on the occasion of the opening of the academic year, he gave a famous speech on the concept of God. During that year he made an official trip to Milan and Rome.

In 1935, the Archbishop of Utrecht, His Excellency Mgr. Johannes De Jong, appointed Father Titus ecclesiastical assistant to the Association of Catholic Journalists, with the task of following about thirty newspapers. It was on that occasion that the Blessed obtained his international journalist's card. He also traveled to Ireland and the United States, where he gave conferences on Carmelite spirituality and tradition, later collected in the volume The Beauty of Carmel .

Father Titus was a gentle man, attentive to his interlocutors, capable of listening. He showed particular availability towards the students and was always ready to help anyone in need.

Between 1938 and 1939 he held courses at the University, criticizing the pagan and anti-human nature of the National Socialist ideology, the danger of which he had well understood.

Meanwhile, the war, which had begun in September 1939 with the invasion of Poland, also turned westwards: on 10 May 1940 Hitler's troops invaded Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.

On 26 January 1941, the Dutch Church, through its bishops, reacted firmly against the Nazi measures. Father Titus, who had also been entrusted with the presidency of the Association of Catholic Schools, actively collaborated with the episcopate. Archbishop Johannes De Jong, in a conversation with the Blessed, said he was concerned about the situation of the Catholic press, forced to publish proclamations issued by the occupation government, in clear contrast with Christian morality. For this reason, in the first ten days of January 1942, Father Titus toured Holland by train, visiting the editorial offices of Catholic newspapers, to bring the indications of the episcopate and encourage the directors to resist Nazi pressure. His Excellency Mgr. De Jong later declared that the religious was well aware of the danger to which he was exposing himself.

As soon as he returned to Nijmegen, he gave his last lecture at the University. While he was returning to the convent, he was arrested. On 20 January 1942 he was taken to Scheveningen prison, where he remained until 12 March. When he was questioned about his activities and the reasons for his opposition to Nazism, Father Titus frankly reiterated his positions, even writing a nine-page memorial. The minutes of that interrogation, kept by the officer in charge, a secularized priest, were valuable material in the Cause of Blessed Brandsma. In prison he was able to keep two books with him: the life of Saint Teresa of Jesus written by Kwalkman ( Het leven van heiligen Theresia , 1908) and Jezus by Cyriel Verschaeve (1939). Father Titus decided to use the time of his imprisonment to write the life of Saint Teresa, as he had wanted since the time he was in Oss but had never managed to do because of too many commitments. Lacking paper, he used the book on the life of Jesus, writing, between the lines, that of the Saint of Avila. A diary, entitled My Cell, also remains from the days spent in Scheveningen . He also wrote the prayer Before the Image of Jesus .

On March 12, he was taken to the penal camp in Amersfoort, where he remained until April 28, forced to work and live in very harsh conditions. On May 16, he was taken back to Scheveningen for further interrogation, which lasted until June 13. From Scheveningen he was transferred to the transit camp in Kleve, Germany, where he found some relief from the suffering he had endured in Amersfoort. In Kleve, in fact, he was able to attend Mass and had spiritual conversations with the camp chaplain. The attempts of his superiors to transform Father Brandsma's sentence into forced house arrest, to be served in a German convent, were to no avail.

On June 13, the long train journey began, aboard a cattle car with many other prisoners, which took the Blessed One through Cologne, Frankfurt and Nuremberg to the Dachau camp. Built in the early 1930s, this concentration camp housed at least 110,000 people until the end of the war, of whom only 30,000 emerged alive. The majority of the inmates fell ill due to the terrible hygienic conditions and the inhuman rigors of life and work. The camp hospital was in fact only an antechamber to the crematorium. Medical experiments were also carried out there, using prisoners as guinea pigs, especially the disabled and weaker ones.

From June 19 to July 18, 1942, Father Titus was in block 28, where many religious and priests were gathered. On July 18, he entered the camp hospital, called Revier , and remained there until Sunday, July 26. That day, at 2:00 p.m., he was killed by an injection of phenol acid. Shortly before dying, the Blessed had given the nurse who was killing him his rosary, made for him by an inmate. The woman, a young Dutch woman infatuated with Nazi ideology, told him that she did not know how to pray and Father Titus replied that to do so, she would have had to say: “Pray for us sinners.” She then converted and, during the Process for Beatification and Canonization, gave her precious testimony about the last hours of the Carmelite’s life.

The body of Titus Brandsma, like that of thousands of other deceased prisoners, was likely cremated in the incinerators of the Dachau camp.

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