When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Antique Vatican Pope Pius IX Aluminum Martyrs of Gorkum Devotional Medal 1867-1918.
The Martyrs of Gorkum were a group of Catholic secular and religious clerics that lived in Holland, a regency of the Spanish Netherlands during the mid- late 17th Century. As Dutch Calvinism took hold and a revolt against the Spanish Crown, fueled by Religious fervor and the incompetence and cruel treatment of local Dutch populations by the Spa ish Nobility, the Catholic Clerics and their devotees in Gorkum were faced with an ultimatum after the Dutch revolt was successful in regaining power in the region. Beatified in 1697, and later canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1867, the 19 men were hanged in town square after refusing conversion to Calvinism and failed to renounce Catholicism, even under threat of execution.
As aluminum became a new metal used for various purposes in the later half of the 19th century in Europe, these medals were produced as souvenirs for visitors or pilgrims that came to the Vatican after the martyrs were canonized by Pius IX in 1867, for sake of devotion, or forgiveness of sins through indulgences.
