Richst Heynes, in the Year 1547

About the year 1547 there was a God-fearing woman named Richst Heynes (so named after her husband, according to the custom of the country), who lived in the Ilst, not far from Sneeck, in Friesland. She, too, bowed her shoulders under the easy yoke of the Lord Jesus, hearing and following His blessed voice, and avoiding the voice of strangers who were opposed to Him. When the enemies of God saw this, they very quickly sought to hinder and stop it. To that end they sent out tyrannical servants, who came like ravening wolves and seized this defenseless sheep. Her husband saw it and escaped at great peril of his life. She was handled very roughly and cruelly bound, without the least mercy or compassion, though she was pregnant and very near the time of her delivery, so that the midwife had already been with her. But in spite of all this they took her with them, though her little children cried and wept pitifully. They brought her to prison at Leeuwaerden, where after three weeks of imprisonment she gave birth to a son. The child, to the great astonishment of all who saw him, very plainly showed on his arms the marks his mother had received from the cruel fetters. Afterwards they tortured her so cruelly that she could not lay her hands on her head. So she was abused with inhuman tortures, mainly because she would not betray her brothers and sisters; for these wolves were still not satisfied, but thirsted greatly after more innocent blood. But the faithful God, who is a fortress in time of need and a shield to all who trust in Him, guarded her lips, so that she betrayed no one. So, since nothing could move her to separate from Christ, she was sentenced at that place, thrust into a bag like an unreasoning beast, and cast into the water and drowned. All this she endured patiently and steadfastly, as an innocent lamb of Jesus Christ, for the name of the Lord, remaining faithful to death; and so she is worthy at last to receive the crown of everlasting life from God, and to enjoy it forever and ever.