| Saint Godfried of Mervel O.F.M. | |
| Birth Place: | Melveren |
| Titles: | Religious, priest and martyr |
| Death Date: | 9 July 1572 |
| Death Place: | Brielle, Spanish Netherlands |
| Beatified Date: | 14 November 1675 |
| Beatified By: | Pope Clement X |
| Canonized Date: | 29 June 1865 |
| Canonized By: | Pope Pius IX |
| Major Shrine: | Brielle, South Holland, Netherlands |
| Feast Day: | 9 July |
Godfried Coart (Melveren, 1512 - Den Briel, July 9, 1572) was a Franciscan friar and one of the martyrs of Gorkum. He is honored as the first canonized saint of Belgium.
Godfried Coart was born in a house on the Keelstraat in Melveren in 1512 and baptized in Holy Trinity Church. After completing studies at the Franciscan college at 's-Hertogenbosch, he was ordained a priest. He served as sacristan and confessor at the Franciscan friary in Gorinchem where he was very popular with the local people. He printed pictures of the saints that he distributed. He also painted.[1]
See main article: Martyrs of Gorkum. During the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule, inhabitants of the northern Netherlands who were primarily Protestant began to turn against the Catholic priests and monastics present.[2] On June 26, 1572, Father Nicolaes Pieck, guardian of the Franciscan monastery of Gorcum, gave permission to those who wished to do so to seek safer havens. Only two fathers did so. The next day Protestant rebels, the Watergeuzen