Thursday, October 16, 2008

Eucharistic Miracle of Amsterdam

The most embarrassing mistake in my History of the Low Countries is my account of the Eucharistic Miracle of Amsterdam, a 14th-century event that is still an important part of the identity of Catholic Amsterdam: after Catholic worship was outlawed around 1580, the old festive procession was replaced with a "silent procession", the Stille Omgang (the authorities could hardly object to people just walking, could they?), which is still going strong.



Anyway, there is an accurate account of the Miracle of Amsterdam here. My own version was written from memory, and tells the story of a different eucharistic miracle in the Rhineland (also involving the consecrated host and fire). That'll teach me to neglect everything I've ever been taught about note-taking and fact-checking! As far as I'm aware it's the only substantive error in the book, but I await reviewers spotting others ...

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