THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL, CONVENT
AND GARDEN.
The reverie into which the Sister had fallen was soon interrupted by the
sound of children’s voices in the small playground. Hastily leaving the
room, she went to meet the merry little band of day-scholars who attend
the boarding-school from half-past eight in the morning until six
o’clock in the evening.
Joyfully the little group of twenty gathers around their mistress. One
presents a flower which mother had given; another, a pretty postcard;
yet another shows a toy or picture-book. A chubby little boy is crying
because he has forgotten his new drum; and thus talking, laughing and
crying, they are placed in line and lead away to the cozy little
classroom whose long, broad windows look out upon the garden, which is
ever green, and the rose bushes near the arbor, which bloom the greater
part of the year, and on whose twigs buds were often seen on New Year’s
Day.
During the morning session one rosy-cheeked little girl, with long
yellow curls and an apron as white as snow, stood up by her desk and
said, “Sister, there is war in the newspapers. Papa said so this
morning.” All the little heads turned, curious to hear about the war;
and little Charlie took out his box of soldiers and arranged them in
marching order on the desk. The mistress took advantage of the situation
to teach the older pupils the great value of peace and the reward
promised to the peacemakers; “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they
shall be called the children of God.”
At half-past nine the recess bell rings, and all the pupils proceed once
more to the playground and play tag, or continue their needlework in the
shade of the wide-spreading trees. During certain seasons of the year
all children play “beads,” which is quite similar to a game of marbles.
Happier than a general returning with the spoils of war is the child
who, at the end of the season, can show her companions a string of
large, many-colored beads two or three yards long.
The swing and the rings are the source of great enjoyment for the
children, and not a little care and anxiety to the Sister on guard,
especially if the ripening fruit hangs on a branch within touching range
of the children’s feet.
When it freezes hard in the winter, there being no snow on the ground
and no pond nearer than the large garden, a number of the older pupils
pump water and throw it on the stone pavement of the playground, until
the whole becomes as a sheet of glass; and then the exercise of skating
on wooden shoes begins. Needless to say, there is danger of fracturing
more than the pavement when this play begins.
Sister M. Anastatia has been for about twenty-eight years preceptress in
the boarding-school. She is a small, slight figure, whose very presence
has a kind of magic influence upon all around her. At her entrance and
during her lessons perfect order prevails. Authority and precision,
softened by great kindness of heart, are the distinctive personal traits
of Sister M. Anastatia. She is assisted in her work by several other
Sisters and two lady teachers.
Among the assistants, no one, perhaps, deserves more credit or gratitude
than Sister M. Cecilia, who for more than twenty-five years has directed
the musical exercises of the Convent and Boarding-school.
Showing a natural talent for music in her early childhood, and
possessing a fine voice, her own progress in this art has been
remarkable, and her services inestimable as teacher of music and
directress of the choir. She is assisted in her work by Sister M.
Margarita, one of the younger Sisters of the Community.
The Belgians, like many other European nations, are great lovers of
music. Thus, since a large number of pupils take music lessons, the
monotony of school life is broken by the melody of many instruments and
the sweet harmony of children’s voices.
There is no place where the influence of soft, sweet music is so
effective as in the church or chapel during devotional exercises.
Nowhere are greater pains taken to develop this art as a branch of
education than in the Convent schools, and nowhere are the results
obtained more gratifying.
Sister M. Amelia, the only child of the well-known family Le Duc, of
Mechelen, entered the Convent at the age of sixteen, and having
completed the Normal course in St. Nicholas, took charge of one of the
higher departments in the Boarding-school. She teaches French and
Flemish, also drawing, painting and penmanship. The English and German
languages are taught in the higher departments.
Proceeding from the Boarding-school, the visitor is led around to the
long playground of the Parochial School of Willebroeck. Here between six
and seven hundred girls form the long line which is marching through the
gate of “d’Externat.” Each division is in charge of one or more Sisters,
who conduct the children safely through the street a little beyond the
Post-office. Here the procession breaks up, and the children scatter in
all directions and run on to their homes in the different parts of the
town.
Scarcely have the Sisters finished dinner, when the throng of pupils are
at the gate again, eager for admittance. See them coming from all
directions, and listen to the clatter of their wooden shoes on the stone
pavement! Truly happy in their child-like simplicity, strong, healthy
and active, they are worthy descendants of a sturdy old race. When the
gate is opened, crowds rush into the yard and begin their games of tag,
jump the rope, hide and seek, etc., just as easily in those hard
“blokken” as their next-door neighbors, the “Pensionnaires” (Boarders),
in fine high-heeled shoes.
The continual use of wooden shoes is hurtful to the feet. They hinder
the development of natural gracefulness in walking and cause the feet to
become large and very flat.
Sister M. Stanislas superintends the Parochial School. Though small of
stature and very delicate, she has worked for years in the cause of
education and has become one of the most prominent teachers in the
province. In company with her associates, the assistant teachers, she
attends the conferences, writes articles on education and conference
work, directs the sewing department; in a word, it is greatly due to her
zeal, energy and Christian charity that the Girls’ Catholic School of
Willebroeck has attained as high a standing as the highly paid public
schools of the district.
On leaving “d’Externat” (parochial school) one enters that part of the
garden especially assigned to the use of the Sisters during recreation.
It adjoins the large garden which is at the service of strangers on
Sundays and visiting days. From the main path, in the middle of the
garden, a fine view can be had of that quaint old Convent, some of whose
buildings have stood there over a hundred years. On the right rises the
new school, containing several large classrooms on one side; and on the
other, the bakery, laundry, free sewing and household schools. At a
short distance from the school is the “Gloriette” (arbor), or summer
house, surrounded by a very beautiful collection of rose bushes, then in
full bloom. There are beds also containing many varieties of flowers,
palms and evergreens.
In the distance is seen the Convent chapel, with its small belfry. It
seems so insignificant in comparison with the majestic tower of the old
parish church of Willebroeck, which, probably, has weathered the storms
of centuries.
On the right-hand side of the chapel is found the “Grotto,” or “Shrine
of Our Blessed Lady of Lourdes.” It is here that the children, during
the summer evenings, sing their sweetest hymns; here also that the
Sisters, after a tiresome day’s work, kneel in spirit a few moments at
the feet of their “Holy Mother” and patroness, who gave to the world the
first perfect model of Convent life, when as a child she parted with her
dearly beloved parents, St. Joachim and St. Anna, and entered the Temple
of Jerusalem, where the years of her childhood were passed in work, in
prayer, and in devout communion with the Divine Being, who was “Lord of
the Temple.”
The number of Religious now in the Convent is fifty. They are Sisters of
the Augustinian Order, bearing the name of Filles de Marie (Daughters of
Mary). The Mother House, wherein reside the Superior General, Rev.
Mother M. Berchmans, and Assistant Superior, Rev. Sister M. Gabrielle,
is, and has been for about fifty years, in the town of Willebroeck, in
the Province of Antwerp, Belgium.
In this house all the younger Sisters are received, trained, and make
their profession, which consists in the solemn pronunciation of the
three holy vows of religion.
Many of the younger Sisters complete their normal course for school
teachers during their novitiate.
The mission houses are Thisselt, Blaesvelt, Aertselaar and Bonheyden.
All the Sisters are Belgians, except one.
During the last eighteen years five of the members have celebrated the
golden jubilee, or fiftieth anniversary of their entrance into the
Community. One of these, Rev. Mother M. Magdalena, was the sister of the
late well-known and highly esteemed Bishop of Richmond, Va., Rt. Rev. A.
Van de Vyver, D. D. She entered at the age of eighteen and lived
fifty-seven years in the Convent.
We stood by the death-bed of all these dear old members who had given
the flower and fruit of their long and useful lives to the advance of
education and religion. We observed the peaceful resignation on the
countenance of each dying Sister, and the smile of heavenly joy on her
lips. The death of each one of these was for the Community as the
passing away of a sunbeam. For them it was only a happy transition from
the sorrows of time to the joys of eternity. We gazed on those faces so
pure, so calm, so majestic, even after the spirit had fled, and recalled
the words of Holy Scripture, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,”
and again, “The death of the just is precious in the sight of the Lord.”
Besides the above named, there are a number of Sisters in the Convent
who have already celebrated their “Silver Jubilee,” or twenty-fifth
anniversary of their entrance.
Under the administration of the so-called Liberal party in Belgium, in
the year 1879, the Catholic schools, being deprived of financial
assistance from the Government, were closed.
A new School Law was passed, and the Crucifix and images of the saints
were prohibited in the schools. Many Catholic teachers resigned. The
clergy and rich Catholic families built schools of their own, which were
supported by gifts.
Our Community provided schools for the poor children of Willebroeck, and
furnished the classrooms with desks, books and all necessary supplies.
The eight Sisters who taught received only 2,000 francs per year, which
was less than fifty dollars for each Sister, and the predicament of the
Sisters became more or less alarming. Several prominent gentlemen in the
town, among whom was Mr. Erix, the father of our present Sister M.
Aloisia, went around taking up collections for the pressing necessities
of the Community.
In the year 1866, when the cholera broke out in Willebroeck, three
Sisters went to the hospital; and, without any compensation whatever,
remained with their patients. Later, about the year 1891, the same
disease broke out again. The Liberal Burgomaster, Mr. De Naeyer, being
in great need of assistance, came to the Convent and asked for Sisters
as nurses. Regardless of their past grievances, occasioned by the bitter
opposition of the Liberals to the Catholic schools, eager only to do
good, five strong, able-bodied Sisters, at the request of their
Superior, left the Convent and went to the temporary hospital which had
been hastily erected in the town.
Here they remained day and night, in the midst of death and disease, at
the bedside of their stricken fellow-creatures until the epidemic
ceased. Strange to say, not one of the Sisters contracted the disease,
although numbers of their patients died each day.
Only two of those heroines of charity and self-sacrifice now survive:
Sister M. Theresia and Sister M. Perpetua. These two Sisters, feeble and
aged, were obliged to take flight into Holland last September, but have
now returned, with several others, to their Convent home in Willebroeck.
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