Sister of Charity SCJM | Dayamina Centre Sri Lanka

SISTERS OF CHARITY OF JESUS AND MARY

History

The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity had a modest beginning in the rural district of Lovendegem, in the Diocese of Ghent, Belgium.

At the beginning of 1803 Peter Joseph Triest , the founder a Belgian priest, 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 established by Mgr. Fallot de Beaumont, their convent being dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels.

The first superior or leader under the name of Mother Placide. ,was a former Cistercian novice. 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". In Lovendegem the sisters gave lessons, looked after orphans and went into the homes of the sick and old to care for them. Moved by the inspiration of the founder to see the face of Christ in the vulnerable.

The Founding Sisters

Our Holy Founder

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. He was moved by the poverty and misery of the people around him, especially the plight of children. Hence, he gathered together a small group of young women to work for the care and education of the neediest.

Thus in 1803 he laid the foundation of his first Congregation, the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary. In 1806 he was appointed as a member of the Poor Relief Committee in Ghent. It was in that function that his pastoral inspiration started to really grow. He devoted practically all his time to the elderly, the poor, the mentally ill, and to foundlings or, in other words, to those in whom society did not seem to take any interest.

In 1807 he founded the Congregation of the Brothers of Charity. The Brothers’ duties consisted primarily in nursing the impoverished elderly and mental patients. In 1825 he founded the Brothers of St John of God who had to nurse the poor in their homes (this Congregation is no more).

One year before he died, in 1835, he founded the Sisters of the Childhood of Jesus who had to look after foundlings.

The Co-Foundress

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. 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 Gowen 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. She experienced the consequences of the Revolution and was aware of the great poverty and suffering. Many people struck down by incurable diseases received neither help nor relief. Mentally-ill patients, men and women, were held in chains in mental asylums. Delinquency among youth, abandonment of children and prostitution were social scourges. In the beginning of 19th Century, illiteracy was deplorable.

Eighty percent of women were illiterate in Belgium! Mother 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. Later, she was accepted through the intervention of Fr. Triest himself as he saw in her a valuable collaborator. The same year she was elected superior/leader 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 administration, this deeply spiritual woman of courageous faith eventually founded, in collaboration with Father Triest, 18 religious communities in order to assist people in the above stated situations. She also laid solid foundations for her 500 religious sisters who were to influence the future development of the Congregation. Her death on 28 September 1844 was a great loss to the Congregation.

Our Mission

Our mission as Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary is to reveal that GOD IS LOVE, especially to the poor and the abandoned of our time. Impelled by the love of Jesus, we commit ourselves to the mission of promoting the reign of God in our particular society and in the world at large. This mission of revealing that God is love is central to our call as religious and it is the basis of all our services.

By the very nature of our call to be Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, we receive a special grace to fulfill this mission. We call this our charism, which is love, expressed in the three dimensions of our life – love for God, love for one another in the communities and love for all people especially the poor who are abandoned by the world. Our founder, Peter Joseph Triest saw this love as a legacy from Christ himself. Therefore “the Charism of every SCJM lies in the particular way in which she unifies in her life, the three dimensions of union with God, service of our neighbor and life in community. This unification is woven into life itself”. (Constitution art. 6)

Our Spirituality

To be able to live these three dimensions of love, we have received a spirituality from our founders which is a combination of the spirituality of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and that of St. Vincent de Paul. Thus the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary are Contemplatives in Action. Simply put, the sisters try to seek God with an undivided heart which inevitably enables them to reach out to others especially the poor and the less fortunate through various services.

Open hands: Solidarity which enables us to hear the cry of those who suffer, to empathize with them and to respond by freely giving and receiving.

sisters of charity at Dayamina Sri Lanka

The Founding Sisters

SCJM Services

Contemplation or union with God is at the heart of our vowed consecration and is expressed by An open ear: a deep and dynamic listening to God, others and the contemporary world. An open heart: the experience of being loved by God, the energizing force driving us to love others as God loves us. Open hands: Solidarity which enables us to hear the cry of those who suffer, to empathize with them and to respond by freely giving and receiving.