Zwartschters (Ghent)
The Zwartbesters of Ghent are a Roman Catholic religious order in Belgium , whose origins go back a long way.
history
The monastery of the Zwarte Zusatz Augustinessen of Ghent is first mentioned in 1363 with a house in the former Wagenaarstraat in Ghent in Flanders . From the fact that the abbot of Sint-Baafs gave them permission to build a chapel, which they consecrated to St. Ursula after their completion , one can see his possible supervisory authority over the monastery. If the iconoclasts ravaged their chapel in 1566, the Calvinists , who controlled the city from 1578 to 1584 , drove the sisters out of their house and sold it. The sisters were only able to return to their monastery when the Spanish captured the city in 1584.
Since their chapel had become a place of worship of Rochus in the 17th century , it was enlarged and decorated at the expense of the city council. In 1797, in the course of the French Revolution, the monastery was closed, which was then sold on October 2nd of the following year, so that the sisters had to find accommodation with friends and relatives. The last seven sisters did not move into a common house again on Rode Lijvekensstraat until 1807, but where they grew again to 25 sisters by 1825 and received royal recognition on May 14, 1829 with the number of members fixed at 40 sisters. As early as 1833 they moved into Houtbriel, where they also ran an old people's home for women. In 1866 they succeeded in opening their first branch in Duinkerke , which was followed by three more. After they had aggregated into the Augustinian order on September 11, 1951, in 1970 there were still 36 professed and two novices in three houses. In the following year, the new old people's home Avondvrede took the place of their monastery, one wing of which serves as a closed wing for the sisters, who were resident in Ghent and Ronse in 2000 with a total of 13 sisters .
dress
Skirts and scapulars are black, the Weihel (head veil) black or white. When going out, they use a large coat in which they completely wrap themselves up.
literature
- Maur. de Meulemeester: De congregatie van de towards the Augustinessen, zwarte towards the, te Gent , Vercruysse-Vanhove, 1947