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Untitled Document
Ida Peerdeman, Prophetess for the Third
Millenium
Biography by Fr. Paul Maria Sigl, 2004, part
one.
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Childhood
and Youth
On August 13, 1905, Ida Peerdeman is born in Alkmaar, Holland, as the
youngest of five children. There is a nice episode recounting this, for
on the same day Gesina, her eldest sister, celebrates her birthday. She
has wanted a new doll for a long time, and so her father guides her into
the bedroom where her mother is lying with the newborn baby, Ida. Gesina
understands, and stamps her foot in protest, complaining, “I don’t
want a doll like that! I wanted a real doll!” |
| Ida at the age of two |
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At the
little one’s baptism in the parish church, St. Joseph, she is given
the name Isje Johanna, but she will always be called just Ida.
Shortly before World War I the Peerdeman family moves to Amsterdam. Ida
is just eight years old when, after giving birth, her thirty-five-year-old
mother dies along with the child. Following this great sorrow which deeply
affects everyone, the oldest sister, Gesina, has to give up her wish of
becoming a nurse. Only sixteen years old, she strives hard to be a good
mother for her three sisters and her brother Piet. Since the father, a
textile salesman, is often on business trips throughout the Netherlands,
she must try to hold her family together. They treasure their family life
at home all the more. Ida especially loves being together with her brother
Piet, who understands her, with whom she can speak, and who consoles her
when she is sad. As a Catholic family they attend Holy Mass on Sunday
and they pray before meals, but that is all.
In her childhood, Ida goes to the Dominican church every weekend for confession
with Fr. Frehe, who will later become her spiritual director. Her life
continues like this for several years, until October 13, 1917. On this
memorable Saturday afternoon in the month of the Holy Rosary, also the
day of the miracle of the sun in Fatima, something amazing happens on
her way home from her weekly confession.
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| The Church of St. Joseph in Alkmaar |
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The First Meeting with Mary
The twelve-year-old Ida witnesses a heavenly
apparition. At the end of the street she sees an overwhelming light and a radiant
woman within, who looks like a very beautiful Jewish woman. The child immediately
recognizes her as Mary. With her arms spread out a little, with a kind, joyful
look, and without saying a word, she stands in the shining light. Never before
in her life has Ida seen something so beautiful. After the woman makes a friendly
sign, the girl hurries home.
It is understandable that her father admonishes her to remain silent about it,
recommending that she forget everything. “For God’s sake, don’t
tell this to anyone. You would be ridiculed and considered crazy. That’s
all we need!” So Ida does not speak about it, even though something similar
happens on two of the following Saturdays. The beautiful woman appears again
as if in the sun, smiling and remaining silent, just as the first time, while
Ida returns home from confession.
All of this happens in the month of October 1917, in which Mary appears for
the last time to the three shepherd children in Fatima. Ida, of course, knows
nothing about this. Fr. Frehe, as Ida’s confidant and the counselor of
the Peerdeman family, hears about the extraordinary happenings. He, too, strongly
encourages her to keep it to herself, and, better yet, not to think about it
anymore. And thus Ida’s initial preparation for the later Marian apparitions
remain completely hidden.1
Thirty-three years later, during the 25th apparition, Ida anxiously asks Our
Lady, “Will they believe me?” In her answer Our Lady herself reminds
Ida of her three-fold coming in 1917, saying, “Yes,
that is why I came to you before––when you did not understand. It
was not necessary then; it was the proof for now”
(December 10, 1950). This means that now, just as before, the apparitions are
not a deception, but truly Mary.
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“Again and again have I
experienced God’s extraordinary help in my life.”
Ida Peerdeman
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Your Imagination Is Not Good Enough
After primary school, Ida wants to continue
her studies to become a kindergarten teacher. After her time of practical
training, however, she is turned away with the statement, “Unfortunately
you are not qualified. Your imagination is not good enough, and you have
too little creativity.” Nobody foresees how important this statement
will someday be in the visionary’s life, namely, when she is accused
that the apparitions might merely be the illusion of her vivid imagination.
Many years later, a psychological examination (at the bishop’s request)
states that she is totally normal. Ida has no ability of pictorial visualization;
she is unimaginative, yet straightforward.
When Ida is about eighteen or nineteen
years old, she decides to work in the office of a perfume factory in Amsterdam,
where she will remain for many years. She is very popular among her co-workers
because of her kind and modest ways. The attractive young lady has several
admirers, but she does not feel herself called to marriage. In this time
Ida suffers more and more from demonic attacks. To this day Helene, the
daughter of Ida’s brother Piet, remembers very well all that was
told within the family circle about this painful time of demonic torments.
While taking a walk through the streets of the town, a certain man catches
Ida’s attention. He is dressed in all black, similar to a priest.
Afraid of his uncanny, penetrating glance, she tries to evade him by quickening
her pace. Her follower, however, is faster. He grabs her forcefully by
the arm, trying to drag her into a nearby canal, as if to drown her. In
this life-threatening moment, Ida hears a soft voice which calms her and
promises help. In the same moment the man, shouting horribly, releases
her and disappears without a trace. After this her father gives Gesina
the task of accompanying her younger sister to work every day and picking
her up in the evening.
Nevertheless, once more they meet this strange man, who laughs coldly,
but does not dare touch Ida. Even a third time the devil approaches the
twenty-year-old girl, and slyly attempts to draw her into a deadly accident.
This time he appears to her as a frail old woman, who claims to know Ida
very well from church. She gives the girl an address and invites her to
come and visit as soon as possible. Ida says “no,” but she
cannot refuse the woman’s request to help her at least to cross
the street. In the middle of the street, she is overcome by paralyzing
fear as she again feels an iron, claw-like grip on her arm. A shout follows,
and Satan disappears. He has led her directly in front of an approaching
tram, which barely stops in the last second, missing Ida by just a hair.
In the evening, when her brother Piet, together with his future brother-in-law,
searches out the address given by the old woman, he finds only an old,
abandoned house.
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 Fr.
Frehe, Ida’s confessor and spiritual director, was personally deeply convinced
of the authenticity of the messages, yet he was anything but gullible.
A Dominican with a theological education, he strictly examined the visions and
words of Our Lady which were conveyed to him by the visionary.
A selfless and devoted pastor, he was kind and gentle with everyone. He could
be truly strict only with himself—and, when concerning matters of the Lady
of All Nations, with the visionary too.
Demonic Torments in the Family
Ida is severely tormented by demons at home too, and
her family suffers together with her, as Ida’s brother Piet later recounts
to his daughter Helene. Once, for example, while Fr. Frehe prepares at the parish
house to visit the Peerdeman family, Ida is simultaneously at home, where she
begins to shout and curse. Suddenly she has such physical strength that she
is able to lift a heavy chair over her head. Her voice is totally changed. We
know of similar phenomena from the life of Blessed Myriam of Abellin, a Carmelite
who sometimes also had to endure expiatory possession before receiving exceptional
graces.
Her family members are witnesses when the living room lamp swings back and forth
and the doorbell or fuse box continually makes noise on their own. When doors
and closets spring open by themselves, the father would sometimes say with humor,
“Come in, everyone. The more the merrier!” Fr. Frehe advises him
to ignore the demonic harassment as much as possible.
Their father’s fearlessness helps the whole family very much. Following
his example, they attach as little importance as possible to extraordinary happenings.
But when it is especially hard for them all, they encourage one another with
a wise saying, “Laugh, youngsters, for if we don’t laugh, the little
devils will—and we don’t want to give them that pleasure!”
Once, however, as an invisible hand chokes Ida and the attacks become extremely
strong, Fr. Frehe under-stands that he should perform an exorcism over her.
During the exorcism the family hears Satan’s revolting voice, which from
Ida’s mouth hatefully curses the priest. Fr. Frehe experiences the demons’
rage also in other ways.
Thus both Ida and her spiritual director are prepared by a twenty-year-long
spiritual lesson for the grace-filled event which one day will concern the entire
world—the coming of the Mother and Lady of All Nations.
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| German Prisoners of
War in Stalingrad - 1945 |
Visions of War
For years now Ida’s life continues peacefully. Just once—still
long before the outbreak of World War II—while working at her office
desk, she unexpectedly sees in a vision countless exhausted soldiers passing
by.
Then, in 1940, when Ida is 35-years-old, the so-called “war visions”
begin, visions of the future concerning World War II. Seeing the approaching
battle fronts, Ida, with her eyes closed, traces their course upon the
table. Her brother, in the meantime, marks them down on a map with pins.
The visions correspond exactly to the latest news broadcasts from secret
transmitters.
Ida, who understands nothing of military strategy, has another vision
of something inconceivable at the time. She sees the German army, which
had still not lost a battle, pinched off and surrounded by the Red Army
at Stalingrad. In May of 1940, at the highpoint of German “successes,”
Ida already sees the end of Hitler and Mussolini. Even Ida’s best
friend laughs about this prophecy.
None of the foreseen events have yet come to pass as her visions of war
come to a sudden end. Ida begins a new phase of her life.
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