Motherhouse Bruges

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The community of the Zwartste of Bruges , which originated in Belgium, forms a Roman Catholic religious order.

The exact date of the establishment of the house is not known, but the first written mention of the monastery can be found in 1348, so that one can assume that it is quite older. Known as Aerme zuers, they lived in Groeninghe, where they are mentioned in 1458 as Kastanjeboomste (chestnut tree sisters). Here they received the rule of St. Augustine, which they followed, on September 5, 1461, as their statutes were confirmed by the Vicar General of Tournai , in order to take solemn vows for the first time with 25 sisters on October 18 of the same year. You must have owned your own chapel by then, because three years later a daily mass was donated for it. But they soon built a new chapel, which was inaugurated on January 29, 1474, along with the cemetery. When the city magistrate of Dixmuide asked for some sisters to be sent, four members of the convent settled there in 1479 and founded a new monastery.

Not much has been passed down for the next few years. In 1510, the city gave them exemption from the beer tax and in the next few decades escaped the rage of the Calvinists and iconoclasts unscathed. But this epoch brought a change in the occupation of the visitor, who was always an Augustinian, but after their escape in 1584 became a Dominican. Since the Geuzen had also expelled the guest houses from the Sint Janshospital in Oudenburg, the sisters sent some sisters to maintain the care there from 1616 until around 1630. Two years later they started a school in Bruges, where they taught not only handicraft but also reading. Also equipped with a employed teacher, it was closed in 1715. Since the events of the past few years had left their mark on the monastery buildings and they had also received a tax exemption on October 17, 1641, they were able to start building their new monastery in 1658. In the following years there were repeated visits by the bishop of the city, with that of Bishop Guillaume Bassery, from 1695, particularly striking, as he asked the sisters to learn to read Latin in order to better carry out their office can.

After the troops of the French Revolution took the city, the monastery was given a war payment of 4,232 livres on September 1, 1794. In order to be able to settle this enormous sum at all, everything was now gathered together, what one could and even the silver melted down. About a year later, on October 24, 1795, the 23 sisters were informed that everything in their monastery was now state property and that they had to draw up an inventory of it within ten days. But the "authorities" did not give up, so that the sisters increasingly expected the abolition of their monastery since July of the following year. They received a letter with this content on January 7, 1797, giving them 20 days to clear the building. However, since they did not obey the appointment, the sisters were shown at the door by two commissioners on February 6th. But not for long, because on March 4th they were given permission to return to their former home. But the luck was short-lived, because on March 16, 1798 they had to leave their monastery again and this time for good. They now moved into a house on Langestraat, where the Vicar General of the diocese, Lodewijk Caytan, also took up residence in November of the following year. However, since the latter had refused to take the state-required oath and had to go into hiding, this was not without risk. He happened to be noticed by a visitor in 1799, whereupon the whole house was searched. Caytan was found and placed in the former seminary with other captured priests.

When the revolution was finally over, in 1805, under the supervision of the Bishop of Ghent, the 22 sisters made up for the election of the superior, which had been neglected since 1793. But the regained order could not hide the precarious situation. They had lost almost everything, had neither a house nor sufficient cash. Age was also a problem for the community. There was no entry since March 20, 1794, so that the community sank to 18 sisters by 1807, most of whom were old and sick, so that only eight sisters were still able to do their service. When three postulants joined the community in 1814, after twenty years, this gave the community new courage to face life. After the monastery commissioner had already acquired a building on Woensdagmarkt for the community in 1807, it was also able to obtain state recognition as a nursing congregation in 1821, with a limit of 18 members. Since the congregation achieved an increase in membership six years later, actually 30 were requested, a certain prosperity of the monastery can be assumed. In the second half of the 19th century the offspring was so large and the congregation had grown so strong that the first branch was founded in 1856 (Ostend). The congregation grew to 50 sisters by 1861, and continued to develop in the following decades, finally switching, in 1926, from home to hospital care, with the option of caring for a larger number of the sick. They have now set up a hospital in Bruges and added a sick bay to the motherhouse.

After they had already aggregated into the Augustinian order on February 7th, 1928, the Zwartsters of Dixmuide merged with them on February 25th, 1954, followed by the Zwartsters of Veurne on October 10th of the same year. Ten years later they formed a federation with three other sister congregations, the purpose of which is to provide mutual support for the hospitals. The numerous renovation work on various branches during this period brought the somewhat financially weak congregation into further difficulties, so that in 1965 part of the art collection had to be sold. Inspired by the Second Vatican Council, the General Chapter of 1965 led to a debate about a mission in South America. After all the necessary permits had been obtained, the first two sisters were sent to Brazil on July 14th of the following year, where their work soon bore the first fruits and the first local sister made her vows in 1976. In 1970 the Congregation still had 92 professed people in six branches, at the beginning of the 1980s they decided to separate their motherhouse from the institute attached to it and, between 1988, moved it to another location within the city. In 1999 there were around 70 sisters.

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