Catharina Reiniersdr Bolnes

We know for certain that Vermeer’s wife, Catharina Bolnes, came from a wealthy patrician family of Gouda deeply devoted to the Roman Catholic faith. Her mother, Maria Thins, had close connections to the Jesuit order in particular. Today, following the suppositions by John Michael Montias, all parties agree that Vermeer's marriage ceremony with Catharina Bolnes (20th April 1653) took place in Schipluy (today: Schipluiden), a village south-west from Delft on the river Gaag. But not a single shred of evidence has surfaced which might suggest in which church this ceremony took place.2 Indeed, a parish in Schipluiden had been mentioned as early as 12th May 1294. But after the Reformation had swept the Netherlands in the middle of the sixteenth century, it had been handed over to the Calvinistic Reformed Church (Gereformeerde Kerk, since 1816 Hervormde Kerk) which had become the official church in the Netherlands. Catholics no longer were allowed to celebrate the Holy Mass, baptisms, marriages or burials in public. Nevertheless, the Catholic faith, as in other cities in the Netherlands, continued to be tolerated by Schipluiden public officials. One of the town’s eldermen remained true to the old faith. http://www.essentialvermeer.com/delft/delft_today/schipluiden.html#...