1. Foundation of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary - 1803
Mgr. Etienne Fallot de Beaumont, Bishop of Ghent from 1802 until 1807.
The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity had a modest beginning in the rural district of Lovendegem. At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century Europe underwent a serious crisis in the economic, social, and religious spheres. During the first years after the French invasion in 1793 the Low Countries were rife with anti-clerical fever. The ultimate goal was to lessen the power of the Church in all the sectors she controlled in order to bring about the complete separation of Church and State. In 1796 a law was passed suppressing all convents and religious foundations and all church property was confiscated by the state. Its administration was given over to the newly created Hospice Commissions. Secular priests could no longer carry out their spiritual duties unless they had sworn an oath of fidelity or allegiance to the French Republic and the detestation of the monarchy. Many were condemned to exile or went into hiding so as to be able to carry on their work clandestinely, with the threat of deportation overseas continually hanging over them.
It was only in 1801 that this situation changed with the signing of a concordat between Pope Pius VII and Napoleon. This reestablished peace in the religious sphere. Dioceses were again set up and in April 1802 Mgr. E. Fallot de Beaumont was appointed Bishop of Ghent. Acceptance of this new religious setup meant a break by the Church with the Ancien Régime. The Church was to renounce her ancient traditional privileges and no longer exercised a monopoly in the charitable and cultural fields. She was, however, granted sufficient freedom to carry out her spiritual mission. One of the characteristics of this Catholic revival was the foundation of numerous religious congregations, which devoted themselves to nursing and education. The congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary was one of the first of these and became the most important.
1.1. The beginning in Lovendegem.
At the beginning of 1803 Pierre Joseph Triest was appointed parish priest in Lovendegem. The poverty, the moral depravity, the crying need for education and care of the sick spurred P.J. Triest into action. Responding to the local needs, he gathered together a few devout single women into a religious association. They soon moved into a little house in the hamlet of Appensvoorde: this was to be the cradle of the Congregation. On 4th November 1803, feast of St. Charles Borromeo, the congregation of the "Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary" was canonically erected by Mgr. Fallot de Beaumont, their convent being dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels. Little by little the foundation took shape. P.J. Triest was able to rely on the assistance of Maria Theresa Van der Gauwen, who had been a novice with the Bernardines and so had some experience of religious life. She became the first superior under the name of Mother Placide. On 2nd July 1804 the first Sisters of Charity pronounced their first vows and decided also to devote their lives to "the caring of the poor and destitute". The sisters gave lessons, looked after orphans and went into the homes of the sick and old to care for them.
1.2. The spirituality of the Congregation and its Official Recognition.
On 22 June 1804 there appeared a governmental decree laying down that no society could be set up without the Emperor's permission and that this would be granted only after examination of its statutes. P.J. Triest attempted to affiliate his Sisters with the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris, since the latter had already received this authorisation and their aim was similar. His request was turned down. He was obliged, therefore, to draw up his own constitutions so as to obtain the necessary authorisation. Accordingly, the Sisters of Charity remained an autonomous congregation with its own rule, which combined the spirituality of St. Vincent with that of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. The aim of the sisters was to unite the contemplative life to the exercise of charity. On 21 March 1805 they adopted the Cistercian dress: a white habit with a black scapular and veil. All was now set to obtain, in addition to episcopal approval, governmental approval of the foundation.
1.3. The first Superiors General.
Peter Joseph Triest was born in Brussels on 31st August 1760 in a well-to-do family. He first attended the Jesuit school in Brussels and went on from there to the Latin School in Geel. Subsequently he followed a two-year philosophy course at Louvain University. At the age of 22 he began his studies for the priesthood at the Seminary in Malines and was ordained priest in 1786.
He began his ministry in Malines and the surrounding district. In 1797 he was appointed parish priest of St. Peter's, Renaix. It was then that Triest refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Republic and decided to go into hiding in order to help his parishioners in their spiritual needs. After the signing of the Concordat in 1802 Triest could openly take over the parish of St. Martin in Renaix but his stay there was short-lived. One year later he was transferred to Lovendegem, where he would start his life's work.
The person of P.J. Triest has left an indelible mark on the Congregation. Triest was not only a good organiser and a practical man who knew how to set about winning the support of civil and religious bodies, he was also endowed with a deep spiritual maturity, which enabled him to draw up a wellthought out rule for the sisters. Armed with these Constitutions he set out for Rome to obtain papal approval, the first founder of a religious congregation since the French Revolution. All through his life Triest would display a reinvigorating spirit and a prophetic vision.
The role of Mother Placide Van der Gauwen cannot be underestimated, especially in the realm of religious life. It is true that she is less well known than P.J. Triest is. This is due in part to the fact that the sisters carried out their tasks anonymously and that very rarely attention was drawn to an individual sister, even a superior, by name. It was also the result of the outlook of the times, which relegated women to the second place in society.
Maria Theresa Van der Gauwen was born in Etikhove on 16th January 1769 of a well-to-do family of gentlemen-farmers. Little is known of her early years or education. In all likelihood she received a good education before entering the convent. It seems clear that she was a novice in the Cistercian Abbey of Maagdendale near Oudenaarde until the political and religious upheavals forced her to leave the convent . M. Placide was 33 years old when on 5 May 1804 she presented herself to the young religious community at Lovendegem. At first she was sent away by the sisters on the grounds that she could not spin. P.J. Triest himself intervened: he had known Maria Theresa for several years and saw in her a valuable collaborator, so she was after all accepted. The same year she was elected superior of the community and, in 1807, Superior General of the Congregation in Ghent. She outlived Triest by eight years. During the 40 years of her superiorship 18 houses were founded, scattered over the length and breadth of Belgium and the number of sisters rose from 6 to 328. Her death on 28 September 1844 was a great loss to the Congregation.
