Once upon a time…
The story begins in Belgium on the right bank of the river Escaut, just outside the gates of the town of Tournai in the year 1231.
Tradition has it that two women put all they owned towards serving the poor and opened a hostelry. Soon there were six of them and they lived according to the Rule of Saint Augustine.
No prominent personality, no veil of sanctity marked this foundation. Nothing except the faith and the simple service of these few women was sufficient to give shelter to passers-by at nightfall.
More than 775 years have passed, a daily journey through history. Soon we will mark eight centuries of faithfulness and creativity, of listening to the needs of the world and to the promptings of the Spirit. From hospital to monastery – from monastery to the apostolic life…
Today we are an international congregation living according to ignatian spirituality. We know how much we are the result of a journey of constant upheaval. From generation to generation a tradition has carried us on and invites us to invent the next step for ourselves…
The first community went through both crisis and change. Read on to follow the story…
Two women open their doors to passing pilgrims. These are hard times, there is much poverty and only a handful of sisters. These women, whose names have never been recorded, are unaware that they are laying foundations and putting down roots.
The tree grows slowly, the Rule of Saint Augustine waters it with love, freedom and trust, in the service of the poor and the sick.
The hospital becomes a monastery. A Jesuit priest helps them through this transition. The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius will become the earth for their life of prayer.
Their doors will open gradually to welcome boarders and scholars.
After the expulsion at the time of the French Revolution a new shoot will appear from the same roots. On the same site, the sisters will begin to develop educational institutions.
In 1857 they receive the Constitutions, adapted directly from those of Saint Ignatius. The Ignatian graft has taken. The spirit of the Constitutions and the Spiritual Exercises structures the branches and sends them to Belgium, England, Brazil, the Congo and France.