Zwartsters Ronse

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The monastery of the Zwartsters von Ronse was one of the social monastery foundations of the Middle Ages , which had proven itself in the concern for fellow Christians.

history

In his will , the provost of St. Hermes, Petrus de Ligno , decreed that his house and an associated pension should be used to build a convent , which was supposed to care for the sick and to be dedicated to St. Anne. The monastic community, which consisted of only ten members, was approved as early as September 5, 1496 by the Bishop of Cambrai, Henri de Berghes , and received permission to adopt the Rule of St. Augustine .

The assets of the monastery, as well as its current income, seem to have been rather limited, since in the 16th century they obtained part of it from washing parament and also took in girls who taught them as boarders in their house. Paid by the city council to teach boys up to the age of ten, the community gradually acquires modest property in and outside the city. But the income of the monastery still does not seem to have been very good, since in 1547 they tried in vain for an income from the neighboring beguinage, which was now an asylum for poor men and women.

After the house, which also had its own chapel, fell victim to the town fire in 1559, ten years later the community numbered no more than five professed and two novice women, and by 1592 it was reduced to three professed and two novice women. However, the monastery developed positively in the following years, so that by 1653 it rose to no fewer than 18 sisters, the majority of which, as it was to be in the next century, were of Walloon origin. Apparently, this positive development was largely limited to numbers, because in 1707 the archbishop wrote a warning letter in which he urged, among other things, that the sisters give the money they received to the superior, visitors not as before, especially on fair days , two to three Living in the monastery for days, the key to the guest wing should not be the same as the key to the sisters 'cells and the key should not be in the sisters' safekeeping either.

Ten years after this letter had 16 members, the monastery was abolished on November 16, 1796 by the French occupation and the property was confiscated by them. After they were allowed to return to their monastery a short time later, they had to leave it for good on January 19, 1798. After disappearing from our sight for a few years, they opened a school for 30 children in 1801. But the officially abolished community did not last too long, as the last superior returned to her family as early as 1810.