John of Cologne or (Gorkum)--d. 1572

In 1572 Anti-Spanish and Protestant pirates put the Dutch town of Gorkum under siege and soon took it. They arrested all the clergy and held them in brutal confinement, attempting to get them to deny the Catholic belief on the Eucharist and Papal succession. John of Cologne was a Dominican parish priest in a nearby village. Hearing of the danger of his fellow priests, he disguised himself and attempted to be of comfort to them Secretly he ministered to these captives and brought the sacraments to them. Eventually John himself was taken captive. In the end, nineteen priests and brothers -- many Franciscan friars – along with the Dominican, John, were tortured, mocked in public, stripped of their habits, mutilated and hanged to death in a barn.

The palm of martyrdom is in his hands and the hangman's rope around his neck.

Another image of palms surrounded by a symbolic noose. At the center is a flower, and below are eighteen more flowers. There were nineteen martyrs at Gorkum.