Zwartsters Dixmuide

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The Zwartschters von Dixmuide were a Roman Catholic community of sisters in Dixmude , Belgium , who were among the many who did not survive the 20th century.

founding

At the request of the city of Dixmuide, the Zwartste family, the motherhouse in Bruges , founded a branch in the Sint-Andrieshuus in 1479 with the sisters Anna, Catharina, Cornelia and Ludovica, the number of which should not be less than six but also no more than eight. A few decades later, namely in 1516, the construction of a separate chapel began, which was then consecrated to St. Augustine on August 26, 1517 .

Monastery in Dunkirk

In 1682 three sisters were sent to Dunkirk to start a new foundation to start building a new monastery. The city magistrate leased them two poor houses in the Sint-Janstraat, where they remained until 1686. Shortly after arriving in town, the sisters bought four houses in the Nieuwpoortstraat. They had these torn down in order to build a monastery and a chapel there. In the first years of its existence the community numbered 15 sisters, but then rose to 20 convent members by 1697. Even if they were generally popular and respected in the city, in the 18th century the monastery was relatively poor and the buildings were old and small. On September 28, 1792, the monastery was closed during the French Revolution.

Napoleonic period

In 1697 the plague broke out. Although the convent already had 17 members in 1694, reinforcements from the community of Bruges were now requested. After the sisters had to take off their habits in 1797 due to the effects of the French Revolution, they were also expelled from their house and it was sold shortly afterwards. It was not until 1808 that they were able to move into common accommodation again in De Breyne Peelaertstraat, until then they lived in groups of two sisters each in different houses in the city. After receiving the royal approval, they bought a large house on Vismarkt, which they lived in from 1822 and built a chapel in 1842. Here, too, the community limited to 12 members, which in its statutes of 1867 was called the Congrégation hospitalière des Soeurs Noires à Dixmuide, performed its service in outpatient care.

Wars and merger

During the First World War, Dixmuide was in the front line. As a result, their monastery was badly damaged on October 21, 1914. They left it a day later, with the superior going to her brother's house, two or three sisters with patients to Brussels, three to France, one to Great Britain (where she also died) and four to Wulveringem. They didn't return until 1919. As it was hardly possible to return to Dixmuiden, the sisters who were in Wulveringem founded a branch monastery in Loppem in 1918, which also housed the novitiate, but was dissolved again in 1923. After they had aggregated to the Augustinian order on March 7, 1928, a convention of five sisters worked in a retirement home in Langemark from 1933 to 1946. From 1934 to 1938 three sisters formed the convent at the maternity hospital in Beernem. After one had also been set up in Dixmuide, the chapel was also restored by 1949. Since the Congregation of Episcopal Law had only 14 sisters in 1953, it merged on February 25, 1954, now with 12 sisters, with the Zwartsteers from the motherhouse in Bruges .

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