History of the Russian Mennonites

The Russian Mennonite beginnings stretch back to the Reformation in the sixteenth century in the Low Countries, including Flanders and the beautiful and historic city of Bruges. Many regularly appearing Russian Mennonites names are represented in the Anabaptist group in Bruges, for example, and can also be used as a window onto the larger story. In a 1576 report on Bruges, Monk Alfonso of St. Emilian wrote to Philip II--the "most Catholic" of Emperors--that the “city is completely infected by said heretical pest more than any other city of the region. … it is a refuge and a storehouse of all heretics and miscreants. Of a thousand homes in that city, not one is pure" ( note 1 ). Most famously, a "Group of 12" Anabaptists were martyred in Bruges in 1561 ( note 2; pic ). A hymn was written to remember these “twelve friends killed in Bruges”; the entire story is sung in twelve verses and each martyr is individually named ( note 3; pic 3 ). The hymn entitled “Grace ...

Political leaders have long used the term "witch hunt"--and there is an historical connection to Mennonites. Anabaptists and so-called “witches” were arrested and tried for related reasons in the Low Countries in the 1500s: namely, as a means to divert God’s wrath. The late-Medievals feared that heresy—in this case ana-baptism and the challenge to other sacraments—invited the wrath of God, and was an instrument for the devil’s own hellish apocalyptic assault. The assumption: the devil's tactics to destroy Christendom included the use of both heretics and sorcerers. Gary Waite writes convincingly that both were seen as “polluting” the community and thus both had to be "excised." "This fear of pollution, or scandalizing God or the saints, also explains why small numbers of peaceable Mennonites were so harshly treated during the second half of the sixteenth century. Plagues, fires, and economic and social crises were often blamed on the presence of even a smal...