‘I go to him as to a filling station of happiness.’
So said a Greek stranger in the Greek church in Utrecht, handing over a telephone number.
In 2022 Maria Vazheva left Ukraine with her family and found herself in the Netherlands. The country was prosperous and beautiful, but something was missing: prayer. So she asked God to show her someone who prayed in this land, for no land is ever without a righteous man.
The answer was a meeting with Jozef van den Berg – the celebrated Dutch actor and puppeteer who, at the height of his fame, left the stage because Christ touched him in his dressing room. For thirty-three years he lived as a hermit in a hut: a theatre curtain for a door, sheepskins for a bed, prayer for a stage. People came to him from all over Europe and went away comforted.
This is not a biography. It is a memoir of meetings, conversations and the quiet of his garden.
Jozef van den Berg reposed in the Lord on 13 October 2023 and is buried on a mountain in Sochos, Greece.
Maria Vazheva teaches theology and works in international business. She knew Jozef van den Berg personally.
