The Miracle of Amsterdam presents a “cultural biography” of a Dutch devotional manifestation. According to tradition, on the night of March 15, 1345, a Eucharistic host thrown into a burning fireplace was found intact hours later. A chapel was erected over the spot, and the citizens of Amsterdam became devoted to their “Holy Stead." From the original Eucharistic processions evolved the custom of individual devotees walking around the chapel while praying in silence, and the growing international pilgrimage site contributed to the rise and prosperity of Amsterdam.

With the arrival of the Reformation, the Amsterdam Miracle became a point of contention between Catholics and Protestants, and the changing fortunes of this devotion provide us a front-row seat to the challenges facing religion in the world today. Caspers and Margry trace these transformations and their significance through the centuries, from the Catholic medieval period through the Reformation to the present day.

Introduction

Part 1. Creation and expansion of a cult (1345-1500)

1. The rise of Amsterdam

2. Religious context

3. The Miracle

4. Corpus Christi and Sacraments of Miracle

5. The bishop and the count

6. Miracles of the Miracle

7. Processions through the city

Part 2. In the Habsburgs’ Favor (1500-1600)

8. Royal interest in the Holy Stead

9. The Habsburgs and national consciousness

10. Eucharistic symbolism

11. The Reformation comes to Holland

12. A women’s resistance movement and the city’s identity

13. The failed coup of the Anabaptists in 1535

14. Disciplining faith and cult

15. 1566, the “miraculous year”

16. The end of Amsterdam as an international place of pilgrimage

Part 3. The Miracle on the margins (1600-1795)

17. Hidden devotion

18. Catholic hope and Reformed fear

19. The Miracle expressed

20. The Miracle celebrated

21. The Miracle weighed up

Part 4. The battle for public space (1795-1881)

22. A velvet revolution: change and continuity

23. 1845: the “Feast of Folly”

24. Antipapism and the ban on public space

25. The “Ultramontane miracle disease”

Part 5. The Silent Walk as a national symbol of identity (1881-1960)

26. The construction of the Silent Walk

27. Cult versus cultural heritage

28. A national cult

29. The practice of the Walk

30. The international Eucharistic movement

31. Politics and ideology: the interwar years and the Second World War

32. The post-war cult: climax and catharsis

Part 6. Revolution and the reinvention of tradition (1960-2015)

33. Reconstruction and affluence

34. Revolution in the long 1960s

35. Religion, market, and tradition

36. Ecumenical harmony?

37. Continuing, broken, restored, and new traditions

Part 7. Conflict or consensus?

Route of the Silent Walk

Timeline

Sources and literature

Index