Zwartsters Lessines

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Like many other religious orders in Belgium, the Roman Catholic religious order of the Zwartsters of Lessines did not survive the 20th century.

In 1527 or 1530, the city magistrate sent a request to the Augustine Soeurs Noires de Mons asking them to send some sisters. In the agreement, the sisters were assigned both ambulatory care and instruction for girls. After they had settled in the former monastery of the Grauwsteers , they received their monastery statutes from the Bishop of Cambrai. The monastery, which should not be confused with the sisters of the Notre-Dame a la Rose Hospital, was sacked by the Geuzen in 1578 and rebuilt at the beginning of the 17th century. After Archbishop Henricus van der Burch inaugurated the chapel in 1617, he gave the 14-member community in 1628 new statutes, which gave not only girls between 10 and 11 years of age, but also boys a place in the classroom with the sisters.

In 1696 a brotherhood in honor of St. Augustine was established in the chapel . Although the monastery was to be dissolved in 1796, its continued existence could be ensured, but their property fell into the hands of the Commissie voor Burgerlijke Godshuizen. After receiving back what was left of it, the Congregation of Episcopal Rights was recognized by an imperial decree on November 15, 1810. Although she was only awarded a number of 12 sisters, the fellowship grew from 11 to 13 sisters between 1816 and 1820. The monastery, which also had a boarding school for girls, developed into a real school congregation over the course of the century, so that at the beginning of the 20th century it had a kindergarten and a household school in addition to a primary school.

However, since the community had no more than eight members in 1920, they merged with the Sœurs de la Visitation de Celles-lez-Tournai in October 1921 , which in turn merged with Sœurs de Saint François de Sales de Leuze to form a new congregation called Sœurs Salésiennes de in 1955 la visitation merged.