friary sold its remaining smaller properties including a smallholding and a field in nearby towns. The single most important document remaining is the Nysted Martyrology, a list of saints' days for the entire year. It was lost during the dissolution of the friary until 1959, when it was located in a library in The Hague in the Netherlands. It is one of only four surviving from the entire medieval period in Denmark. Dissolution The Reformation brought an end to Nysted Friary. Frederik I and his son, Duke Christian, later Christian III, ordered the closure of Franciscan houses in 28 Danish towns beginning in 1527. Just two years later Nysted was the last one remaining. Many Danes vented their anger against the Catholic Church on the most visible representatives, the multiple monastic houses which were to be found in towns of any importance. The Franciscans were targeted first because their constant appeals for food, clothing, money, and labor seemed an added burden to the tithes, fees, and rents already paid to the church by Danish peasants. The tragic circumstances of the expulsion by force of the Franciscans town by town were recorded by a Franciscan friar in "Krønike om Gråbrødrenes Udjagelse af Danmark" ("The Chronicles of the Hounding-out of the Gray Friars from Denmark"). A story recorded about Nysted Friary at the time is that when the local district governor was required to make an inventory of its valuables, four gilded silver chalices, four gilded cups, and three small white silver spoons were missing, as the friars had buried their valuables to be retrieved in better times, but the governor demanded their return and confiscated them. Unlike many other places, the Franciscans were able to remain in the friary until 1538. In fact it was the last outpost of the Franciscans in Denmark. Denmark became officially Lutheran in October 1536 when Christian III and the State Council adopted the . Nysted Friary remained open until 1538 when the last monk, Lutke Naamensen, is recorded as still there. Later that same year the friary was closed. After dissolution The buildings were ordered to be demolished in 1551, when two of the bells from the chapel were taken down and re-hung in Nysted parish church. In 1577 the ruins could still be seen, but from that time on, the stone and bricks were carried off for the construction of local buildings. As late