Defiant Unto Death: Maeyken Wens

Our story takes us back to April 1573 in Antwerp. Here we meet Maeyken Wens a God-fearing wife of minister Mattheus Wens who was a mason by trade. Not much is recorded of the history or upbringing of Mrs. Wens so we will have to start our story with her arrest.

Maeyken was at a believers meeting one day when the authorities broke in and arrested her and other faithful believers and then confined them in the harshest of prisons. While in-prisoned the ecclesiastics and many secular persons subjected her to conflict and temptation to try and persuade her to apostatize from her faith. In the depths of the prison she was subjected to severe tortures to try and break her spirit but to no avail. She would by no means turn from the steadfastness of her faith and when the wicked deeds of her captures produced no result, she was sentenced and pronounced publicly in court, on the fifth day of October, that she should, with her tongue screwed up, be burnt to ashes as a heretic with the others of her group.

Tongue screw used to prevent martyrs from witnessing during execution

On the following day, the sixth of October, 1573, the God-fearing, pious, ministers wife, and faithful servant of Jesus Christ, along with her fellow believers, were brought forth with their tongues screwed and mouths bleeding to the place of their execution. Each of them having been chained to a stake in the marketplace, were deprived of their lives by the flames of persecution until their bodies were reduced to ashes.

In the crowd observing this sad and yet inspiring spectacle of courage and faith was a fifteen year old boy named Adriaen. He could not stay away from the marketplace on the day that his dear mother was offered up; hence he took his youngest brother Hans who was about three years old, upon his arm and they both stood upon a bench not far from the erected stakes, to behold their dear mother's death.

When his mother was brought forth however he lost consciousness and fell to the ground, there he lay until his mother and her companions were burnt. Afterwards, when the crowd had cleared he regained consciousness and went to the place of his mothers demise. Here he sifted through the ashes until he found the screw that held his mother's tongue, preventing her from witnessing the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He placed this instrument of torture in his pocket and kept it as a remembrance of her and her faith.

Adriaen and Hans Wens searching for the screw to keep in memory of their mother's christian witness AD 1573.

Rom 8:36 (KJV) As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

For more about Maeyken Wens life and the letters shared between her husband Mattheus check out Martyrs Mirror by Thieleman J, van Braght