Sebastianus "Bas" Adrianus Wilhelmus Rudolfus Mulder (17 July 1931 – 10 April 2020) was a Dutch-Surinamese Catholic priest. Mulder was born in

Beugen Beugen is a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is part of the municipality of Land van Cuijk. Beugen is located along the Maas and about south of Nijmegen. History The village was first mentioned in 1294 as "de Boghene", and p ...

near the town of

Boxmeer Boxmeer () is a town and former municipality in upper southeastern Netherlands. Boxmeer as a municipality incorporated the former municipality of Beugen en Rijkevoort and that of Vierlingsbeek. In Overloon is the Overloon War Museum. Boxmeer, ...

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. As a

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, Mulder moved from the Netherlands to Suriname in 1959. After Surinamese independence in 1975, he also received Surinamese nationality.De Telegraaf
Martelingen, Showprocessen en de nieuwe vriendjespolitiek
29 November 1980 He would live there for 50 years, his entire active life. Mulder was known as a 'youth priest' and as a 'media priest' appearing on Radio Apintie and since 1966 STVS. He was important for the development of several sports in Suriname and was chairman of the Suriname Volleyball Association. He was also a long-distance runner. During the

1980 Surinamese coup d'état The 1980 Surinamese coup d'état, usually referred to as the Sergeants' Coup (), was a military coup in Suriname which occurred on 25 February 1980, when a group of 16 sergeants () of the Surinamese Armed Forces (SKM) led by Dési Bouterse ...

, when no newspapers were published, he wrote critical articles in the church magazine '' Omhoog''. As a priest Mulder was postulator for 30 years in the

beatification Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

Peter Donders Petrus Norbertus Donders (27 October 1809 – 14 January 1887) was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest and member of the Redemptorist Congregation. He served in various missions in the Dutch colony of Surinam. He started working in the capital Param ...

who had also served in Suriname. He considered the beatification of Donders by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

in 1982 a highlight of his career. Mulder stayed in Suriname until 2009 and then retired in the Netherlands. He started living at a priests' community in Boxmeer. Mulder died on 10 April 2020 at the age of 88 due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

References

1931 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Dutch Roman Catholic priests Surinamese clergy Surinamese people of Dutch descent People from Boxmeer Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands {{RC-clergy-stub