Menno Simons: Mennonite Leader

Next   MennonitesImage: The Prayer Foundation logo (with white Celtic cross on a green shield). Anabaptist Pages

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Plan of Salvation

Prayer Foundation / Prayer / God's Word / FYI / Monks / Features / Books / Movies  / Search Our Site / Home / Site Map / Become A Monk / Contributors Gifts / Contact UsImage: portion of illuminated manuscript page from "The Book of Kells."Photo: Canadian Rockies, Icefields Parkway, Alberta. Photo Copyright 2006 S.G.P. All Rights reserved.  Menno Simons (1496 - January 31, 1561) was an Anabaptist religious leader from Friesland (today a province of The Netherlands).  His followers became known as Mennonites. 

His Influence On Anabaptism

Menno Simons' influence on Anabaptism in the Low Countries was so great that Baptist historian William Estep suggested that their history be divided into three periods: "before Menno, under Menno, and after Menno". 

He is especially significant in coming to the Anabaptist movement in the north in its most troublesome days, and helping not only to sustain it, but also to establish it as a viable Radical Reformation movement.

A Roman Catholic Priest / A Price On His Head

In the early days of the Anabaptist movement, Menno Simons, a Roman Catholic priest in the Netherlands, heard of the movement and started to rethink his Catholic faith.  He questioned the doctrine of transubstantiation, but was reluctant to leave the Roman Catholic Church.  

His thinking was influenced by the death of his brother, who, as a member of an Anabaptist group, was killed when he and his companions were attacked and refused to defend themselves.  In 1536, at the age of 40, Simons left the Roman Catholic Church.  Soon thereafter he became a leader within the Anabaptist movement.  He would become a hunted man with a price on his head for the rest of his life.  His name became associated with scattered groups of nonviolent Anabaptists he helped to organize and consolidate.

Quotes from Menno Simons: 

  • "True evangelical  faith cannot lie dormant.  It clothes the naked, it feeds the hungry, it comforts the sorrowful, it shelters the destitute, it serves those that harm it, it binds up that which is wounded, it has become all things to all people."

  • "The regenerated do not go to war, nor engage in strife.  They are children of peace who have beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning forks, and know no war.

...Our weapons are not weapons with which cities and countries may be destroyed, walls and gates broken down, and human blood shed in torrents like water.  But they are weapons with which the spiritual kingdom of the devil is destroyed.  

...Christ is our fortress; patience our weapon of defense; the Word of God our sword.  ...Iron and metal spears and swords we leave to those who, alas, regard human blood and swine’s blood of well-nigh equal value."

  • "We who were formerly no people at all, and who knew of no peace, are now called to be...a church...of peace.  True Christians do not know vengeance.  They are the children of peace.  Their hearts overflow with peace.  Their mouths speak peace, and they walk in the way of peace."

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Source: Wikipedia - "Menno Simons".     

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Image: Portrait of Menno Simons. Menno Simons

(1496 - January 31, 1561)

Photo: Copyright 2000 S.G.P. All Rights Reserved. A lone monk of The Prayer Foundation in a wooded area.