Antique 1840s Confraternity Certificate | Immaculate Heart of Mary | St Nicholas Heythuysen | Signed by Parish Priest

A rare 1840s Catholic document from the Netherlands: an original certificate of admission (“Aanneming”) into the Confraternity of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary, established in the parish church of Saint Nicholas at Heythuysen in Dutch Limburg.

The printed form is completed by hand: the date 29 June 184… (the last digit is partly faded), the name of the new member, and the signature of the parish priest (Pastoor). The title page bears a woodcut of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, radiant, crowned with roses and pierced by a sword, encircled by the Miraculous Medal invocation in Dutch: “O Maria, zonder vlek ontvangen, bid voor ons, die tot u onze toevlugt nemen” (“O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee”).

The text records that the new member was received into the confraternity founded to pray for the conversion of sinners, sharing in all its good works and in the graces and indulgences granted by the Pope to the Archconfraternity, with which the Heythuysen confraternity was united on 21 May 1844.

Inside the leaflet

• Aflaten (Indulgences): the plenary and partial indulgences granted by Pope Gregory XVI by Apostolic Brief of 24 April 1838, with a further grant by brief of 4 February 1841
• Aims and rules of the confraternity: including the duty of each member to wear the blessed Medal of the Immaculate Conception (the Miraculous Medal), to pray the Hail Mary daily, and the Saturday Mass in honour of the Heart of Mary
• The Memorare (“Gedenk, o goedertierenste Maagd Maria”) in Dutch, “met geestelijke goedkeuring” – with ecclesiastical approval
• Printer’s imprint: Weert, J.M.H. Smeets, noting that the confraternity prayer book was sold for 5 cents

Historical note

The Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the Conversion of Sinners was founded in 1836 at Notre-Dame des Victoires in Paris and spread rapidly across Catholic Europe. Parish certificates like this one, issued to individual members in the very first decade of the movement, rarely survive – especially complete, signed and with the full rules and indulgences.

Details

• Type: printed and hand-completed confraternity admission certificate, 4 pages
• Place: Heythuysen (Heythuizen), Limburg, the Netherlands; printed in Weert
• Date: 1840s (confraternity united with the Archconfraternity in 1844)
• Language: Dutch
• Size: approx. 8.7 × 14.4 cm (3.4 × 5.7 in)
• Condition: age-toned paper, a clipped corner, small edge chips and a split along the fold; text fully legible

A genuine piece of 19th-century Dutch Catholic and Marian history. The item you receive is the exact one pictured.