The Miraculous Victory at Empel: only she can help us.
- Roland Flores
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Ave María! May Our Lady, The Immaculate Concepcion, pray for us! As we prepare for the great Feast of the Immaculate Concepcion of Mary, it’s important to remember all the glories of Our Lady. Our Lady has many, many victories against her enemies. Each of these glories and victories are a little icon of the great scene in revelations: “And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman, who brought forth the man child.” Today, I want to spend some time remembering Our Lady’s miraculous victory at Empel in 1585.
The story of the Miraculous victory at Empel.
In 1540 Calvinism was introduced to the Netherlands, which found common ground among the elites. Eventually, these Dutch Calvinists revolted against their King, Philip II of Spain and the Catholic religion. On 10 August 1566 a Dutch-Protestant mob attacked the Monastery of St. Lawrence in Steenvoorde. The rebels sacked the Church, destroyed all the sacred images and altars, then looted all the valuables. This inspired more mobs across the Netherlands to add to the desecration. By 22 August one cathedral, eight churches, twenty-five monasteries and convents, ten hospitals and seven chapels were sacked. By 5 October over 400 Sacred sites had been sacked.
These rebels did not only destroy sacred images but burnt whole libraries of books concerning religion, all sciences, philosophy, maps and charts. When they could, they broke into tabernacles and threw the Blessed avaramente to the ground to be trodden under their feet and worse. This mob also attacked priests and religious, and all faithful Catholics, destroying their property and crop fields.
In response to this violence, King Philip II sent an army of 10,000 Spanish and Sicilian soldiers under the command Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo to quell the revolt. Over the course of a year, intense battles and sieges between radical Calvinists and Don Alvarez’ forces resulted in order being restored. The Calvinists however, had conceded to flee and re-strengthen. In 1572, Calvinists forces returned and captured several ports. In response to this invasion an second Protestant uprising occurred against Spanish Rule. This resulted in a temporary concession from Spain in 1576, with King Philip II withdrawing all his troops from the Netherlands. This peace did not last. In 1579 war arose again with the Dutch Calvinist forces being agitated and aided by England. Lutherans from Germany, French Huguenots, and Scotland all sent supplies and units to aid the Dutch. Meanwhile no one came to the aid of the tired Catholics fighting with the Spanish.
Despite this the war waged on. This is where we find the events of the miracle at Empel. In 1585, Don Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma and Governor of the Netherlands, invaded into the deeply Protestant north. This however proved to be a mistake, Calvinist commander Philip of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein surrounded the Don Farnese with about 200 warships and 30,000 infantry. The Spanish forces under Don Farnese had only about 6,000 infantry. The Spanish were besieged in unfriendly territory and with winter they began to starve. On 6 December The Calvinists gave the Spanish a choice, recant the Catholic faith and surrender or die. The Spanish response: “Spanish soldiers prefer death to dishonor. We will talk about surrender after death.” The Calvinists opened fire upon the Spanish’s position and and advanced. This forced the Spanish to retreat over a river called Maas to a higher ground called Empel. At Empel the situation for the Spanish became desperate. The Calvinists bombarded the Spanish from two forts and from their hundreds of ships. The Spanish had no more horses left muto eat, no more wooden to burn. The Spanish however, were set on not surrendering and ready to fight to the death. As preparations were made for this last stand, one solider found a buried image of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception as he dug a trench. It seemed that the image had been buried to escape the iconoclasm of 1566. lol The soldiers quickly took the discovery as a sign from God. This l image, which was painted on a wooden panel, was processed throughout the Spanish camp and a makeshift altar was erected for Our Lady to be venerated. Father Garcia de Santo Esteban OFM, the head chaplain, said Mass before the image and all the soldiers prayed the rosary.
That same night a sudden drop in temperature started to the freeze waters.
It was a rare event for the deep and salty waters to freeze but it occurred within a matter of hours. This forced the Calvinists to flee but trapped a few warships. The Spanish realized this and snuck up on the immobilized ships stuck in the ice. The Spanish set fire to the ships and attacked many of them by surprise. Dozens of Calvinist ships were destroyed and hundreds dead. The following day, a small contingent of Spanish troops was sent to open fire upon one of the Dutch forts to allow the others to escape. However this small Spanish force charged and conquered the Dutch fort, causing all the Calvinists to flee in terror. The Spanish looted their supplies and weapons, and the made their escape. Calvinist commander Hohenlohe-Neuenstein responded: "In my opinion, it seems that God is Spanish to work so great a miracle for them.” From that moment forward Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed patroness of the those Spanish Tercios. A perfect model for Our Lady’s eternal triumph over the serpent. At Fatima we heard these hopeful words: “Only She can help us.” An evident truth in many situations, Empel being among them. The date of this grand victory was 8 December 1585. On 8 December 1854, Pope Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and proclaimed the day as our Lady’s feast. “And indeed it was wholly fitting that so wonderful a mother should be ever resplendent with the glory of most sublime holiness and so completely free from all taint of original sin that she would triumph utterly over the ancient serpent.”
References:
The Marvelous Miracle of Empel Shows the Power of the Immaculate Conception.
The Miracle of Empel: An Astounding End to a Decisive Battle for the Spanish
El Milagro de Empel
Ineffabilis Deus The Immaculate Conception Pope BI. Pius IX - 1854
Ineffabilis Deus - Papal Encyclicals