POTTER United Families

evening that it seemed like winter. No weather to go there. De Pottere
had to do the work in those evil times, bring all things along: chalice,
ampoules, mass bread, wax candles, candlesticks, even the wine for
the sacred service we had to bring with us.
That was how concerned he was. On and on, he visited the Gasthuis
hospital and the old people's homes. Disguised, he visited sick
persons at home and organized secret public masses.
When Roeland left Delft, he said to me: "Here you have two bags of
money. All in all, twelve hundred guilders; six hundred in each bag.
"One bag I brought to Mr. D. in the Begijnhof, and the other bag of
six hundred guilders I brought to Mr. W. at the Begijnhof. There you
can see if the father has exercised charity. Such a person was Roeland
de Pottere.
All of that was so risky and Roeland had to find ways to achieve his
mission. He would take a pump on his shoulders and discretely enter
the Gasthuis; then he spoke to the sick person as if he were a
pumpmaker, and as if the sick person was his friend. And so he had
the sick person meet his ecclesiastical obligations in the Hospital !
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