"If all the papists were like Parmentier, the Geuzen would be far from here"

In this portrait, the Catholic priest Petrus Parmentier (1602–1681) is depicted in the black habit of his Augustinian monastic order. This is remarkable, because as a missionary in Protestant Amsterdam, he was never able to wear it.

Before Parmentier was sent to Amsterdam by his superior, he was a professor of theology and subprior at his monastery. With his departure for Amsterdam, he permanently said farewell to the monastic life, which he had chosen at the age of 21. When he arrived in the city in 1636, there were no longer any Catholic churches or monasteries, and practicing the Catholic faith was officially forbidden. He must carry out his priestly duties in different homes of fellow believers and dressed as a civilian to avoid being recognised as a priest.

During his life in Amsterdam, Parmentier befriended the wealthy Catholic cloth merchant Jacob van Loon (1595–1674). In 1670, Parmentier moved into De Ster, a warehouse recently converted into a hidden church by Van Loon. The closeness of their relationship became apparent when Parmentier was buried in 1681 in the same grave as Van Loon in the Nieuwe Kerk. A mission report notes that his death is mourned by everyone, and even non-Catholics are convinced of the sanctity of his life. At his death, he left behind a church community of about one thousand Catholics.

In 1836, 200 years after his arrival in Amsterdam, Parmentier was honorably commemorated in the hidden church De Ster. His portrait was prominently hung on a pillar opposite the pulpit. This tribute is still clearly visible in a preserved lithograph. While De Ster has been demolished, the portrait has been preserved and hangs in the Our Lord in the Attic Museum, where Petrus Parmentier was pastor between ca. 1661 and 1670.