In the Middle Age lived a once promiscuous girl named Elisabeth. She had come to repentance, found honourable employ as a maid, and had established herself at the hamlet of Vrieswijc, modern Friezenwijk. This hamlet is located near the scenic village of Heukelum in the region of Batavia (viz. the region of Betuwe) in the province of Gelderland, the Netherlands.
Because of Elisabeth’s former dissolute and dishonourable lifestyle, the Devil still preyed on her body and soul. This was, after all, how medieval people thought of women in general. Women, namely, could easily be swayed, as was evident after Eve had eaten from the apple — the forbidden fruit — first at the behest of the serpent, the Devil. Especially, dishonourable, unmarried girls were susceptible. See our post Harbours, Hookers, Heroines, and Women in Masquerade to understand more of the concept of honour and the position of women in the late medieval (and early modern) period.
In the year 1282, Elisabeth — whose name means ‘my God is an oath’ — went for a walk on what must have been a very hot summer’s day (Van Engelen 1995). Probably somewhere along the River Linge near Friezenwijk. After she got thirsty, Elisabeth drank from a pond filled with clear water. Inexcusable, she forgot to make the sign of the Cross before she started to quench her thirst and did not notice that the Devil had poisoned the water by throwing a small clot of earth into the pond. That Elisabeth failed to cross herself probably was because she still lacked the discipline of her former rowdy life and had not mastered all the rules of piety yet. Or it was a sign she was not far from being evil herself — making the sign of the Cross before drinking fresh water from a fountain or other water sources was necessary in the medieval perception, because demons and evil spirits could inhabit it. Without this heavenly protection, evil could ingress into a person (Arnold 2024).
At the house in her room, she became possessed by evil. It was so bad that she had to be tied down to her bed. A scene we are all familiar with since the movie The Exorcist (1973). Only this time her name was Elisabeth instead of Regan; although there are many more Regans (see note 1). Anyway, the lady of the house where Elisabeth worked as a maid cared for her and brought Elisabeth during Lent to the priest in Heukelum to confess her sins. For a while, this offered some solace. The Devil inside was pacified. Until Easter, when she was about to take communion. Elisabeth’s mouth turned to stone, and she could not swallow the holy host. A white dove came flying into the church and took the host out of her mouth. Probably as a precaution not to waste any holy bread. Back at the house in her room, Elisabeth became possessed again, and total madness came over her.
After three days of suffering, the Virgin Mary decided it was enough and time to help out Elisabeth. The Virgin Mary, together with John the Evangelist and Saint Elizabeth, announced to Elisabeth they would visit her in Friezenwijk. Elisabeth tried to find the most beautiful white cloth to lay over her bed in order to respectfully welcome her three esteemed guests. But in vain, because she had too little time. Instead, Elisabeth put a modest, simple bedspread made of cheap hemp over her bed. The Holy Trinity came, sat down on Elisabeth’s bed, and cured her. After Elisabeth had cleansed her mouth with purified, blessed water, the same dove from before during Easter came flying in again and put the host back into her mouth. Finally, Elisabeth was able to swallow it at last.
One last time Elisabeth’s Devil made an effort to get hold on her body and soul, but it was not able to get inside anymore. It left the room, and out of frustration the Devil set fire to the matrass made of straw. Elisabeth extinguished the flames with both her arms, which got burned heavily. When Elisabeth wrapped her arms with the hemp bedspread the three saints had sat on, the skin of her arms healed immediately.
Commentary
The above account is basically a free translation of documentation collected by the Meertens Institute. The story of this miracle can be traced back to texts dating to around the year 1480. Different accounts speak of the yearly procession held on Pentecost Monday, carrying the statue of the Virgin Mary, departing from the parish church in the village of Heukelum to the chapel in the hamlet of Friezenwijk. The chapel was built on the spot where the exorcism had happened. The hemp bedspread was kept as a relic in the church of Heukelum but has been lost, probably after the turbulent times of the Reformation in the sixteenth century.
One can think of many explanations for this story. A likely one, we think, is that it was about a young girl with a (perceived) rebellious character who was pressured by her social environment to accept the conservative conventions of the community. Maybe she had a strong personality and vigorously resisted conforming. In the end, it got her off balance and caused distress, and even mental illness. Or — who knows — she was mentally unstable in the first place, which made her behave in socially unacceptable ways. Out of social ignorance, she was pressured into obedience and ‘healed’. Either way, Elisabeth had to fight (her) demons.
We cannot help but think that a free female spirit was a victim of her constricting time.
The procession of the Virgin Mary was very popular. People from all over the country attended. Even after the Protestant Reformation and the Beeldenstorm (‘statue fury’) in the year 1566, devotees continued to organize the procession. By the mid seventeenth century, the procession was still popular. A century later, however, the tradition had finally fallen into disuse. Not much later, the chapel must have been dismantled, as well as the procession pathway. Where exactly the chapel stood is unclear. It might have been located in the area that has been fully excavated by the local brick factory. So, we will never know.
As a side note, there used to be a holy tree at Friezenwijk, to which people made pilgrimages until well into the seventeenth century (Schuyf 2019). We have no information where that tree must have stood.
The sinful girl of monastery Bloemhof
The early thirteenth-century Cronica Floridi Horti (‘chronicle of monastery flower garden’), of the equally named monastery at the hamlet of Wittewierum in Frisia (modern province of Groningen), speaks of tragedy of a similar nature as that of Elisabeth from Vrieswijc. The monastery is known in the Dutch lunguage as klooster Bloemhof.
It is about a young girl who was haunted by an impure ghost or monster, even after she entered the monastery as sister oblate. Abbot Emo (ca. 1175-1237), the first foreign student at the University of Oxford by the way, performed exorcism rites, including sprinkling the girl with holy water.
Et intravit assumpto sacerdote, et premissa letania exorcizavit aquam, et invocato nominee Iesu Christu et excitata fide cordis necessaria contra tumultus phantasticos, orations complens aspersit et recessit.
Cronica Floridi Horti, thirteenth century
And he [Abbot Emo] entered together with a priest the monastery, and having recited the litany he consecrated the water, and after invoking the name of Jesus Christ, and having awakened the faith of the heart, which is necessary against assaults of evil spirits, he prayed, sprinkled her and left.
This exorcism helped for a few days, but then the monster returned during the night. It came four days before full moon and another six days during the month. Always in the darkness after Matins. Then the monster would force itself on the girl as a true physical creature. The girl got confused and committed sins of a sexual nature. Abbot Emo tried to comfort her and to bring her back to Christ. He told her to confess, sing psalms and take communion daily. No matter how often the girl confessed, etc., it felt like it did not help her. Until one day Abbot Emo was overcome by the Lord and said to the girl to pray and praise as honest as Hannah once did in the Books of Samuel. After these heavenly inspired words the girl found a way to pray worthy, finally, and immediately was freed from the impure ghost and committing sexual sins.
Again, we can only speculate about what the real story was. Was she cured, or did she finally give up and bow her head, like the wild and ungovernable Elisabeth? But perhaps we are already falling into victim blaming by focusing on her behaviour, while the real perpetrator may have been someone else entirely. Was it Abbot Emo who eventually realised that he could no longer impose his will on this girl? And, as has happened so often since, was it the woman who ended up blaming herself for the sin? After all, sexual misconduct against women within the Church is by no means a modern phenomenon; it has a long history (Deetman Commission 2011, Obe 2020). Of course, this is speculation too. But that is precisely our point: be careful not to believe the chronicle blindly.
Angela at the monastery in Bologna
One more example concerns Nonna Angela Tussignana, a nun in the monastery dedicated to Saint Lawrence in Bologna, Italy. In 1583, the inquisitor Eliseo Capis of the Holy Roman Church accused her of witchcraft and of being possessed by the Devil. Another nun bravely defended Angela against the inquisitor, explaining that she was angry and unhappy because she had been confined within the walls of the monastery for much of her life (Rendsmark 2023).
The name Friezenwijk & other wics of Frisians
How the hamlet of Friezenwijk received its name is a bit of a mystery. Originally, local people used to call the hamlet Agter Vrieswijc, or later Achter Friezenwijk meaning ‘behind Friezenwijk’. The best and simplest explanation is that the name Friezenwijk means ‘settlement or farmstead of Frisians’ (Van Erkel & Samplonius 2018). Some speculate that after the retreat of the Romans, Frisians settled here. Others say, however, there was a little waterway called the Vree, Vrede, or Vreze, and that this explains the part Fries or Vries. Etymological wise, the jugglery with d and z might be complicated. Yet others say Fries or Vries stems from the Dutch word fris meaning ‘fresh/windy’, and therefore ‘windy area’. An explanation you are allowed to forget immediately. Or it could mean ‘swampy area’ (Van Honk 2020), but no sound etymological explanation is given for these suggestions. So, we unbiased, humble hikers of the Frisia Coast Trail stick with ‘settlement of Frisians.’
Not far from the hamlet of Friezenwijk, you can find the town of Vreeswijk (‘Frisian wic’), and also the neighbourhood Friezenbuurt (‘Frisian neighbourhood’) at the town of Maarssen. Vreeswijk’s original spelling is Fresionouuic. Of yet another settlement, the early-medieval settlement Fresdore, meaning ‘Frisian’s burh’, it is unsure where it was located. Some scholars say it was another name for Vreeswijk, while others say it was the predecessor of the village of Cothen along the River Kromme Rijn in the province of Utrecht (Van Bemmel et al 2022). Check our blog post The Batwing Doors of Dorestad. A Two-Way Gateway of Trade and Power for a bit more information on these place names.
Okay, let us add one more Frisian wic — a settlement of Frisians — namely Freswick. This one is farther from Frisia, lying in the far northeast of Scotland.
Freswick in Scotland is traditionally explained through Old Norse Þrasvík, with Þras being a personal name, so Þras + wic. Its etymology remains disputed, however. Interestingly, there is an almost identical name in Norway: Fresvik on the Sognefjorden. Norwegian etymologists commonly explain this name as meaning ‘Freyr’s bay’, after the god Freyr. But could these names instead preserve evidence of medieval settlements or trading stations established by Frisian seafarers in Scotland and Norway, both situated along the North Sea coast — the sea they navigated so intensively in the Early Middle Ages? In fact, both places are associated with natural harbours. Also, given all the toponyms in England containing the element fres, which are considered of Frisian origin (Hines 2001, Bremmer 2005), check our map, on which we have plotted all the placenames.
It will come as no surprise that we hikers of the Frisia Coast Trail find Frisian / Fres(ian) + wic a far more convincing explanation than Freyr + wic. It is a straightforward theory that requires neither a long-shot explanation for the insertion of an s nor the loss of -yr needed to turn freyr into fres. Intriguingly, a penannular brooch fragment from Hallumerhoek in former Frisia belongs to the same broad type as examples known from Freswick, linking the two sites as well (Edwards 1940, IJssennagger 2017).
There is another Fresvik in Norway, on the Sørfjorden. Although identical to Fresvik on the Sognefjorden, this name has many explanations, among them the personal name Friðrekr, with vík apparently having been lost in the development of the name. So, concerning the two Fresviks in Norway, there is no consensus — and ample room for a new explanation: ours.
If interested in stories of Freswick, check the website of Monique Sliedrecht, a Canadian artist of Dutch descend, living in this remote corner of Europe.
Note 1 — The Exorcist is not the only movie in which young women are possessed by evil, demons, or the Devil. For example: The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), The Unborn (2009), The Last Exorcism (2010), The Rite (2011), The Devil Inside (2012), The Conjuring (2013), The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014), The Exorcism of Molly Hartley (2015), and recently The Exorcist: Believer (2023). But many more. Yeah, women are still seen as the most prone to temptation and evil…
Note 2 — When hiking the Frisia Coast Trail, you will pass through the hamlet of Friezenwijk and the village of Heukelum. Do you dare to walk through the scrub of the river floodplains west of Friezenwijk by night, where the Devil must have roamed?
Note 3 — Besides fries(en) denoting a people, it can also denote a profession. It is the occupation of friesen known in Germany and Switzerland; land workers who irrigated fields in the seventeenth century. See our blog posts From Patriot to Insurgent: John Fries and the First Tax Rebellions and, especially, A Severe Case of Inattentional Blindness: The Frisian Tribe’s Name.
Suggested music
- INXS, The Devil Inside (1987)
- Sandra, Maria Magdalena (1985)
- Queen, I Want To Break Free (1984)
Further reading
- Arnold, E.F., Medieval Riverscapes. Environment and Memory in Northwest Europe, c. 300-1100 (2024)
- Bemmel, van A.A.B., Cohen, K.M., Doesburg, van J., Hermans, T., Huiting, J.H., Poppe, E.L., Renes, J. & Vliet, van K., De dam bij Wijk en het Kromme Rijngebied in de middeleeuwen (2022)
- Boer, de D.E.H., Emo’s reis. Een historisch culturele ontdekkingstocht door Europa in 1212 (2017)
- Bremmer, R.H., Frisians in Anglo-Saxon England: A historical and toponymical investigation (2005)
- Chamson, E.R., Revisiting a millennium of migrations. Contextualizing Dutch/Low-German influence on English dialect lexis (2014)
- Deetman-commissie, Onderzoek Seksueel Misbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk (2011)
- Edwards, A.J.H., A Brooch Fragment from Freswick Links, Caithness (1940)
- Engelen, van A.F.V. (ed.), Jan Buisman. Duizend jaar weer, wind en water in de Lage Landen. Deel 1. Historisch onderzoek 764 tot 1300 (1995)
- Erkel, van G. & Samplonius, K., Nederlandse plaatsnamen verklaard. Reeks Nederlandse plaatsnamen deel 12 (2018)
- Herwaarden, van J., Heukelum, O.L. Vrouw van Heukelum (the Meertens Institute website)
- Hines, J., The Role of the Frisians during the Settlement of the British Isles (2001)
- Honk, van M., Het grote wonder van Vrieswijc (2020)
- IJssennagger, N.L., Central because Liminal: Frisia in a Viking Age North Sea World (2017)
- Jansen, H.P.H. & Janse, A. (transl.), Kroniek van het klooster Bloemhof te Wittewierum (1991)
- Mathijsen, M., Een vrije geest. Het uitzonderlijke leven van Betje Wolff (2024)
- Obe, A.J., IICSA, Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (2020)
- Rendsmark, M., Stoute nonnen overtraden kloosterregels (2023)
- Schuyf, J., Heidense heiligdommen, Zichtbare sporen van een verloren verleden (2019)
Frisia Coast Trail 