Remembering Brother Andreas

charles van leeuwen

Remembering

Brother Andreas

Remembering

Brother Andreas including texts from Maximino Arts Tharcisio Horsten Amatus Hosemans Paschasius van Loon Modestus Spierings Victor Zwijsen

introduced and annotated by Charles van Leeuwen

Contents

Š 2008 Brothers cmm and Charles van Leeuwen Original title: Herinneringen aan frater Andreas (2007) Translation by: Maastricht University Language Centre Published by: Brothers cmm, Tilburg-Nairobi Book Design: Brigitte Slangen, Nijmegen Lithography: Fred Vermaat, Wijchen Cover drawing: Brother Vincenzo de Kok isbn 978 90 812137 21 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system and/or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Preface 7 charles van leeuwen Gentle and humble in heart 13 father victor zwijsen He is beyond my admiration 38 brother modestus spierings You should be in my place and I in yours 52 brother paschasius van loon An ordinary life of extraordinary virtue 64 brother maximino arts An inspiring role model 74 brother tharcisio horsten A special person with special blessings from God 88 brother amatus hosemans With love and meticulous punctuality 106 About the texts and illustrations 123 List of illustrations 124 Publications about Brother Andreas 126

Preface

This book brings to life memories of the Dutch brother and teacher Andreas van den Boer (1841-1917). The cmm Brothers’ archives contain many texts in the form of letters or notebooks with accounts of the ‘holy brother’ by people who knew him. We have chosen but a few from the many stories. Together they paint a very personal picture of Brother Andreas, who he was, what he stood for and how he lived. The collected stories in this book were written after his death by fellow brothers, students and colleagues. The texts give a lively impression of the community in which Brother Andreas lived and the school where he worked.

They contain small anecdotes one can still identify with today and show what Brother Andreas meant to others. His fellow brothers and students remain fairly matter-of-fact in their stories and are not afraid of making critical remarks or qualifying their opinions.

So an image emerges of a very extraordinary man, but also a very vulnerable one, an image that is much more human and probably more recognisable than the idealised image of the heroic and exemplary brother, which comes to us from official hagiography.

Brother Andreas brought a unique approach to religious life. He identified with the Mercy in the brothers’ programme, and in his own way contributed to its meaning and standing. He fulfilled

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his potential; his life was dedicated to the upbringing and education of children, to the care and attention of his fellow brothers, and devoted to the congregation and the church. His life was perhaps not spectacular and did not lead to spectacular results – at least not at first glance – but if we read the stories about Brother Andreas carefully, we find many extraordinary things. Many people who met him experienced something they wanted to hold on to and pass on.

More than ninety years have passed since the death of Brother Andreas in 1917. During that time – almost a century – more than ten biographies have been published, some of which are very voluminous and detailed. As a result, there is a lot of documentation on the life of Brother Andreas, from the box bed where he was born to the cell where he slept, from the students he had to the lessons he taught, and from the books he read to the jokes he told. However, despite all the attention from historians and archivists, it is becoming increasingly difficult from a modern perspective to fully understand the world of Brother Andreas and imagine how the brothers used to live. What moved Andreas and his fellow brothers? What was it that made such an impression on the people surrounding Brother Andreas? What did his example mean to them during his life and after his death? This book aims to answer these questions by referring back to the sources.

This book is not just about the story of Brother Andreas the individual. On all his devotional pictures he is depicted alone, but the surprising thing is, there are no photographs of Brother Andreas

on his own. He is always pictured between school children, fellow brothers, family members and fellow villagers. Photographers had to process the group photos and enlarge some parts of them, because people wanted to have a personal portrait of the ‘holy brother’, but in doing so they distorted reality. Is it not better to depict Brother Andreas as a teacher among his pupils? Does it not do more justice to his efforts on behalf of children? Is it not more accurate to place Brother Andreas among his fellow brothers? In this way it becomes clear that he undertook his mission together with others and shared his passion with many other brothers.

Brother Andreas was not a man who fought a lonely battle, but one who was part of a community and very dedicated to children.

For that authentic portrait we should, therefore, place Brother Andreas amidst children and fellow brothers. That is why this book is not just about Brother Andreas, but also about the people around him: brothers, priests, children and parents.

This book is not just about the past either. The history of the Brothers of Mercy is more than a collection of dusty brochures and faded pictures. The story of Brother Andreas and his fellow brothers continues today. All around the world there are people devoted to works of mercy. They work in education and training and apply themselves to the care of the sick and those discriminated against. They look after forgotten people and offer help and salvation where no one else intervenes. They pray and bring hope, lay the foundations for communities and represent the church.

Brother Andreas still has brothers and sisters today whose life and work is motivated by the same passion. When we talk about the

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work, the belief, the ideals, the struggles and the miracles of Brother Andreas, we do so to inspire the people of today. His zeal and dedication have not lost any of their topicality and his work must be continued.

One of the first biographies of Brother Andreas was written in 1922 by an Austrian priest, Father Theophorus Max, who had met the brothers by chance when he accompanied a group of children being cared for in the Netherlands after World War i. Father Max was deeply impressed by what the brothers did for the children and wrote his book in gratitude and dedicated it to the benefactors of the Viennese and German children in Tilburg. It is perhaps only a small point, but it aptly illustrates that we cannot separate the story of Brother Andreas from the bigger story of Mercy to which the brothers dedicated – and still dedicate – their lives.

This new English book about Brother Andreas is published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Brothers cmm in Kenya. We would like to dedicate it to all young cmm brothers, who are also benefactors of children in many different countries, and follow the example of Brother Andreas in their work, prayer and community life. We hope they will recognise in the stories about a man ‘gentle and humble in heart’ (Mathew 11,29) their own passion, inspiration and personal dedication, and thus feel encouraged to continue sharing merciful love wherever they can.

Charles van Leeuwen October 2008

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Gentle and humble in heart charles van leeuwen

Brother Andreas, or Jan van den Boer, was born into a simple farmer’s family in Udenhout in the Dutch province of Brabant, on 24 November 1841, the youngest of seven children. During his childhood, the family moved several times within the municipality as his father’s business prospered and expanded. Jan first lived in Udenhout itself, later in the smaller villages Biezenmortel and Helvoirt. As a farmer’s son he learned to work hard and was to distinguish himself throughout his life by his inexhaustible zest for work. His pious family also endowed him with a warm and deep faith, which was never to leave him. He was a clever boy and loved to read and study, and because of that was soon the odd one out in the village. As a result, it did not really surprise anyone when he went to the new teacher training college of the brothers in Tilburg in 1855 and chose a future as brother and teacher at the age of seventeen. In 1863 he took his eternal vows.

Brother and teacher Not long before that, in 1844, Bishop Joannes Zwijsen had founded the Congregation of Brothers of Our Lady Mother of Mercy, also called the Brothers of Tilburg after the place where they started. Zwijsen hoped to found a religious working community,

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which would serve a number of needs in his diocese. The primary need was to service the great demand for Catholic education, but there was also a need for other forms of education as well as care for the poor and those discriminated against. The objectives were comparable to those that other recently founded congregations of brothers had set themselves. Zwijsen’s idea was not an original one; communities of brothers of mercy were also at work elsewhere, in several French, Belgian and Dutch cities. Some years earlier, in 1832, when he was still chaplain in Tilburg, Zwijsen had founded a congregation of sisters: the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mother of Mercy. This congregation focused successfully on local education and care of the sick, but was less successful at working with older boys. It was thus quickly followed by the congregation of brothers. Although it did not grow as rapidly as the congregation of sisters, by 1859, the year when Jan van den Boer became a novice and was given the name Brother Andreas, it had more than one hundred brothers. They worked at a few schools in Tilburg, but had also started some schools elsewhere in the province of Brabant and even across the border in Belgium.

Brother Andreas trained as a teacher and was appointed at Huize Ruwenberg, a new and large boarding school in Sint-Michielsgestel, in 1861. He was to work at this prestigious institute for over fifty years and taught many children from influential Catholic families. His work as a tutor and teacher was busy and varied. Brother Andreas taught various classes, including the art of handwriting and Dutch and later obtained additional teaching certificates in French and German. He was good at languages and

he would use them extensively, not only in education. For example, in his free time he translated a great many children’s books from German and ensured that the level of French, one of the official languages of communication in the congregation at the time, was kept to a high standard. In addition to the children, he also taught those brothers who were less familiar with these languages. Besides education there were many other tasks that filled a brother’s day, such as supervising the boys when they got up in the morning, when playing in the court yard, during recreation time and in the dormitories. In addition, there were always plenty of household chores to do, and the celebration of Mass and other daily religious practices.

At first Brother Andreas worked in primary education, but he was soon entrusted with the care of the ‘Latinists’, boys in preparatory training to become priests. The congregation had set up the Latin class in the hope that some boys would opt to be trained as priests for the congregation, because until 1916 the congregation had priests as well as brothers. In practice this combination did not work very well and was not permanently approved by the church authorities. The idea was later dropped and the priests went to work elsewhere. However, when Brother Andreas worked at Ruwenberg, the seminary still existed. Between 1871 and 1900 Brother Andreas supervised various priest student classes, first as a teacher and later also as their director. He found it easier to work with boys aged between twelve and eighteen rather than with younger children. His serious personality was better suited to boys who were aware of their vocation.

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Kind and devoted

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In some ways Brother Andreas was an extraordinary brother. He was meticulous in everything he did and he surprised everyone with his amazing punctuality. He was always on time and adhered to a strict religious regime. In his desire to follow up and give meaning to the smallest regulation he had no equal. He was a man of great composure who did not shy away from the more rigorous aspects of religious life. That is how, for many brothers, he became a model of religious obedience and a living example of how to abide by the rules. But he was much more than that. He was also a very social man, eager to help his fellow brothers and loyal to his superiors. Despite being a little too virtuous and slow, he was also happy, friendly and uncomplicated in his manner. He never complained and did not back out of any duties. Thus he became a highly esteemed fellow brother. But that was not all. He was also a very popular teacher, which was curious, because he was not very successful nor gifted at teaching. He did not have enough natural authority and flair for that. He may not have been very gifted, however, but he did have vision. He did not approve of the accepted approach to teaching and abhorred hitting children or imposing strict punishments. He invariably chose a gentle and humane approach and entered into serious discussions with the boys. Because of his kind-hearted and careful nature he knew how to win the trust of boys and brothers who felt lonely in such a large and strict boarding school.

So Brother Andreas was the personification of the key values of the congregation. His humble and self-effacing approach to religious life was an example to all. He also showed what it meant to be a brother and to live in a community. And he was a man who put the concept of mercy into practice; the mercy the congregation carried in its name, but was not perceived by everyone in the large and expanding educational system.

Perseverance When Brother Andreas was seventy and in failing health, he was transferred to a brother house in Tilburg. Despite having lived at Ruwenberg for fifty years and having become one with the building and the community, he accepted the transfer in 1912 in good spirits and without complaint. Perhaps it was better for him, now that he was getting old and infirm, to live in a smaller community. He had a tubercular infection on his right shoulder, which was getting worse. He suffered a lot of pain and lost almost all control over his right hand. It is typical of the brother’s character and perseverance that he taught himself to write with his left hand, with a skill that would do credit to a handwriting teacher. His comment on that was: ‘The Good Lord always gives us a second chance.

I can no longer write with my right hand, but I can still write with my left. I can no longer write with a pen, but I can write with a pencil.’ After a quiet old age Brother Andreas died quite suddenly in the summer of 1917. He was seventy-five years old and caught a bad

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cold. Until then he had been reasonably fit, but on a cold summer’s day he had pushed himself too far by taking a long walk from his community in Tilburg to his family in Berkel. He did not spare himself and simply carried on, but paid the price with an infection that would prove fatal. His condition deteriorated rapidly; it was not an easy death. Moments of quiet and lucid prayer were followed by hours of despair and religious anguish. The peaceful conversations with the brothers who nursed him switched to feverish death and inward struggle. It was to leave a deep impression on the brothers who witnessed it. The once so quiet and modest brother put up a bitter and heroic fight, until he finally succumbed on the evening of 3 August 1917.

There are various accounts of his final moments. Some say they were wretched, some say they were reconciled and radiant. His fellow brothers were deeply moved by his death. Their dying brother brought them face to face with eternity. They wanted to pray for his salvation, but realised that he could perhaps better pray for their salvation. They mourned his passing, but were also thankful for such a glorious ascension. His death was not final; the man already referred to as the ‘holy brother’ during his life became even holier after his death. Many seemed to hold special memories of his saintliness.

Holy brother The children at school called him the ‘holy brother’. This was not meant as a compliment. Brother Andreas, after all, was not good

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at keeping order. As a teacher he was perhaps remarkable for his piety, but he often floundered and embarrassed himself in front of class. He was not the only brother given this dubious title of honour. The students of Ruwenberg used the same nickname for several confrères, sometimes mockingly or ironically and sometimes with a glimmer of admiration for their religious deportment, which the children did sense, but could not place.

In the beginning Brother Andreas did not really mind his nickname. He was a man of principle. That was the way he was. It was important to him to carefully apply the school rules, to strictly interpret the rules of religious life, to help his colleagues as much as possible and to treat all students properly. That was not saintliness but meticulousness. The nickname ‘holy brother’ did not even do justice to that precision. After all, looking for something to hold on to is not the same as saintliness.

There was nothing Brother Andreas could do about it. The nickname ‘holy brother’ was to stick for the rest of his life. During a celebration one evening, when fireworks were being shot into the air, the boys joked that one day Brother Andreas would ascend into heaven as quickly as the rocket shot into the air. And if the brother accidentally knocked himself on a stovepipe and let out an expletory Glory be to the Father, the boys saw it as a wonderful illustration of his reputed holiness. Brother Andreas’s other unusual characteristics, such as his shyness, his lethargy, his absentmindedness and his obsession with time, were interpreted as aspects of his proverbial holiness. Was Brother Andreas not always

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lost in heavenly thoughts? Was it not a wonder that despite this he always managed to be exactly on time? Did it not amount to a superhuman achievement, complete control over time and a total regard for colleagues and school order?

It became more embarrassing for Brother Andreas when his fellow brothers started using the nickname as well. The community’s superior Frumentius van Hulten once said in the chapter, when he explained the rules: Take Brother Andreas, for example, he is a ‘holy brother’ who applies the rules perfectly. After that Brother Andreas felt that everyone was watching him. It made him even more timid and nervous than he naturally was. In response he applied the rules even more conscientiously than before.

He did not want to offend anyone and was afraid of not being worthy of his fellow brothers or of setting them the wrong example. The more he was used as an example – and Superior Brother Frumentius had the habit of using him as a model brother all too often – the more anxious and unhappy he felt. He dismissed every compliment and developed a hearty dislike for his nickname.

Brother Andreas never lost his holy reputation. Children longingly looked forward to meeting the ‘holy brother’ for the first time, but were disappointed when they met him. Was that all? Was that so ordinary and drudging teacher supposed to be the ‘holy brother’? The school children’s parents were curious too and watched him when they visited the Ruwenberg Institute. They were surprised at his simple appearance and retiring manner. The ‘holy brother of Ruwenberg’ had conjured up very different images in their imaginations! His fellow brothers were not unnerved by the

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nickname ‘holy brother’ and were not afraid to comment on it, as Brother Paschasius van Loon did in his memoirs: ‘Back then people sometimes said: Brother Andreas is a holy person, but it would be quite difficult if we had too many saints here, as it would make a proper mess of things.’

His fellow brothers could not refrain from spying on him, testing him or poking fun at him about his much-discussed holiness.

Whenever he heard the cursed word, Brother Andreas cringed in fear. He did not want to hear it. It was a form of pestering against which he could not defend himself. Perhaps it was even a form of blasphemy, because it did not do justice to the holiness of the Almighty and Merciful God, to the holiness of Christ and to so many saints and blessed who really were holy. He tried to be even more anonymous in the way he lived and withdrew into himself more and more. But to no avail. He was and would remain the ‘holy brother’ to all.

In blessed modesty We know quite a lot about the life of Brother Andreas. That is clear from the many accounts of him. For some inexplicable reason attention was repeatedly drawn to this inconspicuous brother.

Students, parents, fellow brothers – they were mesmerized by him and could watch him for hours. Brother Andreas already had a ‘reputation of holiness’ during his life, but from the stories we know, we can deduce that his reputed holiness was also a subject of discussion. Some people really saw something holy in him

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while others did not see it at all, or only referred to it jokingly or teasingly. He refused to entertain it himself. He was an ordinary human and did his best to be an ‘ordinary’ brother. Brother Andreas bore the nickname of ‘holy brother’ as a kind of cross. It was a torment he would suffer for a long time and which would mark him deeply for life.

27 He rejected any kind of personal adulation, as his fellow brother Amatus remembers: ‘He scorned honour, wealth and worldly pleasures. He laughed about honour. He did not like people to honour him. Once I had to write an article for a newspaper. I do not remember what it was about, but I had the chance to mention Brother Andreas. I told him: ‘André, how about I give you a mention in my article. He looked at me indignantly: “Mention me! What good will that do? For God’s sake let me be free.” I heeded his words so as not to hurt him.’ Others were less discreet and eagerly passed on the stories about his exemplary life and his reputed holiness, and in this way he became an icon of Ruwenberg.

Devotion The nickname ‘holy brother’ would outlive Brother Andreas! His death is followed by a piece of history which is difficult to trace.

Brother Andreas very quickly became a real holy brother to a wide circle of people. Many invoked him in their prayers. The extraordinary prayers answered and attributed to the intercession of Brother Andreas were numerous. Several miracles did happen. A

devotion was born. His grave became a place of pilgrimage. The modest and solitary brother became an icon.

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The congregation and diocese realised that they had to respond to the messages about miracles and inexplicable recoveries that were reported after the death of Brother Andreas. In 1924 the brothers established a Brother Andreas Bureau, which was given the task of recording the accounts of miracles attributed to and stories about Brother Andreas. The printing presses of the Roman Catholic boys’ orphanage had to supply an insatiable demand for devotional pictures, collectible medallions and souvenirs. People also wanted to hear his life story, which is why several brothers and priests wrote his biography. The brothers also organised special evening prayers for Brother Andreas and, from 1930, pilgrimages to his grave. So the veneration of Brother Andreas became quite structured soon after his death. It all happened quite quickly, and within ten years of his death there was a strong religious devotion to him.

Nevertheless it would take until after the war before an official beatification process could start. Between 1947 and 1948 a commission of church authorities started collecting and studying the many accounts and wonders. The process would continue in the decades that followed and was finally concluded in 1982. Extensive official documentation was brought together and scholars and cardinals are now only studying one last wonder, a wonder that must be officially recognised before Brother Andreas can be beatified.

One thing is certain. Brother Andreas would not have thought a process of beatification necessary. Had he known about it ninety years after his death it would probably have made him just as unhappy as when he heard himself called ‘holy brother’, a name he felt he did not deserve. He would have dismissed it, saying: ‘I was just a simple and ordinary brother; please leave me alone.’ If the process of beatification, which started sixty years ago and concluded only recently, were indeed to result in beatification, we would have a controversial blessed, a blessed who did not believe he was, nor wanted to be a blessed – a reluctant blessed. Brother Andreas is not a spectacular world-shattering candidate blessed, but a very simple man, an unpretentious blessed. As one of his fellow brothers said about him, ‘As far as I know or have seen, there was nothing special or any radiance apart from the silent radiance that emanates from an ordinary life that is lived as virtuously as possible’.

Extraordinary charisma Can we compare Brother Andreas van den Boer to the blessed and the saints of his time? He was no scholar and Prince of the Church like Columbia Marmion (1856–1923), no dynamic founder of orders like Pierre Julien Eymard (1811–1868), and no inspiring missionary like Damien de Veuster (1840–1889). He left no mystical writings like Theresia van Lisieux (1873–1897); nor did he assert his religious and political beliefs through martyrdom like Titus Brandsma (1881–1942). Brother Andreas did not scale the heights of those mentioned above. He was a sympathetic and perhaps

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somewhat clumsy teacher, who led a sober and simple life. He was a deeply religious man who accepted his limitations and tried to make the most of them, and an unpretentious brother who perhaps unwittingly wins first prize in beatification.

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After almost a century this brings us to the question: how should we judge the life of Brother Andreas and how do we explain his saintly reputation? If, after decades of speculation, the beatification that people have been waiting for finally comes to pass, what are we to make of it?

Brother Andreas’s extraordinary charisma can clearly be found in his simplicity. He was a straightforward, unpretentious man. We can draw inspiration and encouragement from his simple way of life and the way he constantly dedicated himself to the lot of vulnerable people, because the secret to religious life is to be found in the unfailing pursuance of such simplicity. Brother Andreas can serve as an example for teachers, social workers and other workers of mercy, to whom he seems to whisper: ‘What I could do as a simple brother, you can do too, so just go on and do it.’

Brother Andreas’s extraordinary charisma can also be found in his clear and determined manner. He was a caring brother and a kind teacher. He exceeded others in his level of caring and kindness. He empathised with children who struggled at school and tried to give them extra support. He did not like to punish, but dealt kindly with the troublemakers. He was quick to help people who could not manage on their own. He paid special attention to chil-

dren and fellow brothers who felt lonely in the vast educational system. His simple example offered gentle encouragement to fellow brothers who may have had doubts. He was a man who carefully, clearly put the ideals of mercy and brotherhood into practice.

Finally, Brother Andreas’s extraordinary charisma can also be found in his silent life of prayer. People around him sensed his zeal and inner strength. They felt his gentle compassion and were touched by it. As Brother Exuperius said about him: ‘If you saw Brother Andreas, you instinctively thought he was someone who walked in God’s presence and if you met him somewhere, especially during the silentium, you could not believe that he was thinking of anything but God.’ We have no insight into Brother Andreas’s inner self, despite the best efforts of the first biographers to reconstruct his life of prayer. It is very clear, however, that his life was firmly rooted in silence and prayer and from that Brother Andreas drew strength to live his life as he did.

Champion of virtuousness The oldest sources often present Brother Andreas as a champion of virtuousness. He was a man of his time and lived strictly to the rules of the congregation and the regulations imposed by the church. Central concepts in his understanding of religious life were order, obedience, servitude, brother love, kindness and mortification of the will. His kindness and virtue were unsurpassed.

According to one of his fellow brothers: ‘If you wanted to please

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him, you had to ask him a favour.’ Some of his fellow brothers and students thought he was a bit soft because of this; others sometimes complained that he grumbled a lot, was stiff and old-fashioned. In their memories of Brother Andreas his fellow brothers and students also mention his human side and weaknesses and say that that was what they loved about him. Brother Andreas was more than an exemplary brother. He exposed his own vulnerability and could therefore win the trust of other vulnerable people.

So Brother Andreas projected the extraordinary charisma of the community of brothers. He represented what we could call the founding generation of brothers of mercy, the extraordinary first group of brothers. He started teacher training college at the age of thirteen, when the congregation was barely ten years old and had only a few dozen members. He knew all the young and new brothers, because they went to the teacher training college with him or lived in the same mother house. He was assigned the task of educating and training the first generations of student priests. He acted under the authority of the founders of the congregation, Msgr Joannes Zwijsen and Superior Franciscus Salesius de Beer.

He took part in the great adventure of spiritual discovery and new undertakings of those first decennia. In Brother Andreas’s life story we see the influence of the different religious values that were present at the beginning of the congregation – values that were essential at the time but still stand at the centre of every Christian life. These are the values of brother love, merciful care, simplicity, silence, devotion, determination, justice, prayer, faith in God, community, obedience, enthusiasm, and so on.

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However, the very strongly defined and somewhat dated depiction of goodness and virtuousness may stand in the way of getting to know Brother Andreas when viewed from a 21st century perspective. One of his colleagues and fellow brothers who knew him well, Brother Amatus Hosemans, indicates that it was no different a century ago: ‘Most people who had close contact with Brother Andreas were a bit wary of him at first. He was too meticulous for them, too holy. Slowly, however, their silent admiration for this man would grow, a reverence that would never leave them, not even many years after they left the institute. Although at first glance he did not appear to be the world’s greatest teacher, those that came into contract with Brother Andreas were the most deeply inspired and touched by him. One explanation for such an extraordinary influence is that those that met him discovered this simple man’s saintliness, which was drawn from sixty years of ascetic life and fifty years of teaching. He was always punctual and polite down to the last detail and dedicated himself to the task of tutor and teacher in words and deeds, all of which was in effect directed at God. He was a man who preferred to keep a low profile and be true to himself in everything he did. Perhaps it was because they understood that his heroic struggle to be faithful to a simple life went beyond the simple things themselves and that his words and deeds effectively only had one direction – they were directed at God – and that his love of God and the desire to fulfil God’s will took up his whole life. And so it happened that he, probably without even knowing it himself, came to the fore and had an extraordinary impact.’

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Gentle and humble in heart Maybe we can’t fully understand Brother Andreas’s extraordinary charisma, how it originated and how it affected people around him. But it certainly had to do with his religious lifestyle: his deep ‘love of God and desire to fulfil God’s will’ and his being ‘faithful to a simple life’, as Brother Amatus characterises it. Perhaps by referring to biblical terms we can come closest to the mysterious radiance of Brother Andreas’s life. He identified with the ordinary and needy people he worked for, and became one of them. Didn’t Jesus say that the poor in spirit, the pauperes spiritu, would have part in the Kingdom of Heaven? (Mt 5,3). And didn’t he invite many of those poor, small and ordinary people to follow Him and make the Kingdom of Heaven visible? Brother Andreas was one of these ordinary but totally dedicated people following Jesus, he was ‘gentle and humble in heart’ (Mt 11,29). In his complete solidarity with the small and ordinary children he cared for and the extreme simplicity he strived after himself, he gave shape consistently and wonderfully to a life according to the Gospel.

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father victor zwijsen First brother historian

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father victor zwijsen (1858–1930) was the grandson of Cornelis Zwijsen, the brother of the congregation’s founder, Msgr Joannes Zwijsen. The young Zwijsen, named Cornelis Johannes after both his grandfather and his famous uncle, was only ten years old when he started at the Ruwenberg boarding school.

A few years later he joined the seminary of the congregation. In 1876 he entered the noviciate of the brothers, in 1879 he took his eternal vows and in 1882 he was ordained priest. Because of his background, his priesthood and his keen insight into people he was predestined to hold a leading position in the congregation.

After a period as chaplain in ’t Heike in Tilburg – the same position in which his uncle started his renowned ecclesiastic career fifty years earlier – he was set to Grave, to become rector of the brother house and the Saint Henry Institute for the blind in 1892.

Two years later he was posted to Curaçao, where he became rector of Saint Thomascollege in Willemstad. After the college closed in 1909, he was called back to Tilburg and, because of his experience in journalism and literary talent, was given a lot of editorial work to do in addition to his pastoral work for the Saint Vincent Church next to the mother house. He became editor in chief of the Catholic children’s magazine De Engelbewaarder (The Guardian Angel) and in 1912 took on the chief editorship of the national Catholic newspaper De Tijd (The Times), a position he was, however, to resign from a year later. Either he did not feel at home in Amsterdam, or the congregation’s polity did not see journalism as a suitable occupation for brothers and priests. When the congregation became a congregation of brothers on the authority of

Rome in 1916 and the priests had to leave, Zwijsen had to comply too and start a new life. He became rector of the psychiatric hospital Coudewater in Rosmalen, a job he combined with editorial work for the Episcopal paper St.-Jansklokken, which he himself had founded, and other writing. Under his new name, C.J. Zwijsen, he published several studies on Spanish literature and a detailed biography of Saint Francis De Sales (1920). The fact that he lovingly recalls the first general superior of the brothers in the preface of his biography, Father Franciscus Salesius de Beer, ‘whom I venerated as a father’, even after his forced departure from Tilburg, typifies his lifelong solidarity with the congregation.

Zwijsen was the first father to understand the importance of a historiography of the congregation. He wrote the chronicles of the mother house from 1880 and probably also supplemented information preceding that date. He was able to draw from personal experience and family stories for his memories of the life of Msgr Zwijsen, Archbishop of ’s Hertogenbosch (Herinneringen uit het leven van Z.D.H. Msgr J. Zwijsen Aartsbisschop van ’s Hertogenbosch) written in the 1880s, and was actively involved in the 50th anniversary of the congregation in 1894. He not only published dozens of articles about the congregation in daily papers across the Netherlands, but with his memorial book Gouden Jubeljaar (Golden Jubilee) in 1894 he provided the first official history of the brothers. The following text about Brother Andreas is a letter to the general superior written in Coudewater on 18 March 1920.

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He is beyond my admiration father victor zwijsen

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I was placed under the guidance of Brother Andreas at Ruwenberg at the young age of ten and I knew him until I was sixty. I do not remember much from the early years until I was placed under his special supervision during the foundation of the Latin section of the teacher training college at Ruwenberg in 1871.

Twelve young priest candidates, including one boy from Germany, were consigned to his care in a separate part of the old building. One of them, and not one of the easiest, was the undersigned.

I do not like Brother Andreas The first impression I had of him, which stayed with me for a long time, can be summed up in the following words, which slipped out and even reached the Very Reverend Superior General: Je n’aime pas frère André, I do not like brother Andreas. Whose fault was it?

Now I am older and see things through different eyes, I do not hesitate to say that it was my fault. After three years of having been just an ordinary student at Ruwenberg, during which time I could only have earned a small prize for good behaviour once, I was placed under the onerous rule of a conscientious man. I was not going to easily succumb to the straightjacket of duty as interpreted by Brother Andreas. However, no matter how recalcitrant I was, I never saw the good man lose his patience, and, although

there was no love for him in my young heart, I did not lack respect for his virtuousness. Little things made that respect grow. For example, once I happened to be close by and saw the good man almost knock himself out on the corner of a hot stovepipe. There was not a hint of him losing his composure. All I heard was a soft ‘Glory be to the Father’ pass his lips, which to me was a small sign of immense virtuousness.

God is calling us At the end of recreation time he used to stand in the doorway of the old building with the bell in his hand and say: Mes amis, Dieu nous appelle, My friends, God is calling us. Sometimes we would grumble, but the concept of performing one’s duty to God gradually got through to us. A major part of his approach to upbringing was dedicated to devoutness, and, to be honest, it saddened me a great deal as someone who was anything but naturally devout. It did not make it any easier when I sometimes heard others (who should have said nothing) say that he was much too gracious, and had raised us much too kindly.

Let’s press on!

During the first years of our residence at Ruwenberg we, the Latinists, had no holiday, by which I mean that we did not go home.

That was very hard indeed! But then Brother Andreas did his best to make our time more pleasant with all kinds of distractions, in which he only succeeded part of the time, but mostly he did not.

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Not surprisingly, holidays were later again reintroduced. On our walks in the picturesque surroundings of Sint Michielsgestel the sun, and in particular his watch, were our guide. His Allons serrer (let’s press on), meant as much as: let’s make sure we’re back on time, so that we don’t lose a minute’s worth of study. So, wandering along unfamiliar roads or paths he did not know the length of was out of the question. Sometimes, however, we did have the illusion of being lost in the woods.

The sandman The study period that followed was usually quite funny. We knew very well how much trouble Brother Andreas had staying awake, not only in the chapel, where he made incredible efforts to avoid dropping off, but also during study periods. Whenever he fought against the sandman, we (at least the undersigned) jumped at the opportunity to grab forty winks too. If it got really bad and the ‘watchman’ was overcome at his desk, at least for a minute, we sometimes got into mischief, like exploring the room behind the classroom where the refreshments were kept. The lock on the cupboard, however, never gave way. Such raids were always doomed to failure anyway, because they always had to be aborted when mind again triumphed over matter and the gruelling struggle against sleep started again.

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Almost saints

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In those days there were several duty masters who stood in for Brother Andreas from time to time. Some of them were not well suited to the job, which was no surprise, because no matter how much people may look down on the post of duty master, it requires a considerable amount of tact and character insight to keep control over such a troop of youngsters in their awkward years.

No matter how good their understanding, they are always full of mischief and inclined to run riot at every opportunity. I am sure that he had reason to complain about more than one duty master, who was either too lenient or too strict, but he never said a word in our presence, lest it would diminish the respect we should have for them. On the contrary, he knew how to extol their virtue to such an extent that we started looking upon some of them as almost saints. As a result, when we became their fellow brothers, some were greatly disappointing. We had learned to look at them in the light Brother Andreas shone on them, but in reality they were different.

Tenderness Nothing really stands out in my memory from those days. Everything flowed along without fuss or drama. Of course there were disappointments, perhaps on both sides, but nothing special happened, otherwise it would have made a deeper impression on me. Once, during my studies, my mother was seriously ill. I was surprised that the man I had thought without compassion, now

overflowed with tenderness. The way he told me the news and the heartfelt manner in which he tried to comfort me, stayed with me as the memory of a soft balm, which was poured over my emotional soul.

After five years of humanities, what a pleasure it was for him to be able to offer the congregation its first born! The number had dwindled from twelve to six (one had slipped from his care through death during his student years at Ruwenberg), but these six were and remained very dear to him. This is where my relationship with Brother Andreas ends. We stayed in Tilburg; he was made responsible for a new class of priest students at Ruwenberg.

After that I hardly ever saw him, as our paths diverged.

Rich vein The next time our paths crossed, although it was only on paper, was when I was rector in Grave and had the opportunity to help take over and edit De Engelbewaarder (The Guardian Angel). This very popular children’s magazine had started life four years earlier in Maastricht at the Saint Paul’s print works. It found no success until it was sold in 1892 for the formidable price of one Dutch guilder to Mr Jozef Witlox in Grave, where it was to be edited from then on. The Roman Catholic boys orphanage in Tilburg was to be responsible for printing and running the magazine. For the next ten years, however, its net profit was donated to the blind boys institute in Grave. The children’s magazine received help from all sides in the form of contributions. One of the first to

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come forward was Brother Andreas, who opened a rich vein of short stories and articles. I cannot say that all of the children’s stories were noteworthy for their style. He did not always manage to hit the right note, which is so essential to capturing a child’s interest. So it happened from time to time, that stories were rejected or simply not placed. That is not an easy task for the person doing the rejecting, nor is it easy for the person being rejected.

Many would be deterred from writing by such setbacks, but not Brother Andreas. He graciously accepted the comments from the man, he himself had taught to write and compose, and always set back to work with renewed vigour. He was not a genius at writing, but a genius in virtuousness … like an immense fire that could not be extinguished by the swirling winds of doubt.

Hero of modesty Via the superiors of the congregation I, his former student, more than once received extensive writings to read and assess, consisting of dozens of notebooks. The assessments, which I submitted in writing were sometimes less than flattering, but I never heard him complain. That is quite remarkable, because pieces of writing are like children – even if they are ugly and deformed, parents feel protective towards them. The same applies to a brainchild. No matter how far from perfect they are, as a rule their authors cannot bear them to be meddled with, or even worse, shoved into a corner and forgotten! Brother Andreas was the exception to that rule. He had become one with Thomas à Kempis’s ama nesciri et pro nihilo reputari (love to be unknown and thought of as nothing), perhaps

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not without inner struggle and effort, but the outside world was never witness to this. For me he was one of the heroic figures of modesty, a virtue that was often praised, but rarely practised, especially (and this is where I remorsefully point to myself with my penholder) by them, who feel called to put pen to paper to inform others. For him it was enough to have made the effort. Whether or not the products of his pen could be used did not dishearten him, or so it seemed, which is remarkable. To him God’s glory and the salvation of others was what mattered most, the rest was incidental.

Youthful obstinacy Now, finally, my young and rash Je n’aime pas frère André changed to J’admire frère André (I admire Brother Andreas), and this admiration grows stronger as the number that share his traits grow fewer. He does not need my admiration, but let me rest it on his grave as compensation for all the grief he no doubt suffered, often as a result of my youthful obstinacy and rashness.

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brother modestus spierings Housemate of Brother Andreas

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brother modestus spierings from Oss (1852–1922) went to the brothers’ teacher training college and entered the congregation in 1871, after he had passed his auxiliary teaching certificate. He was one of the few brothers of his generation who was allowed to study for a teaching certificate, as the policy on studying at the time was still very reserved. The congregation’s polity made sure that the number of teaching certificates did not grow faster than the number of schools to prevent unrest and frustration among brother teachers. Brother Modestus passed his teaching certificate in 1879, at the same time as his lower teaching certificate in French. He was to become one of the brother teachers involved in the development of education in the Dutch province of Brabant. He was sent from one school to the next to either set it up or consolidate it. As a result his career as a teacher and headmaster unfolded in many different places: ’s Hertogenbosch (1872–1875), Tilburg ’t Heike (1875–1895), Reusel (1895– 1899), Tilburg St Denis (1899–1904) and Goirle (1904–1914). The

fact that he was a proficient teacher and valued his fellow brothers is illustrated by his being elected as member of the general board in 1902. He wrote several text books on history, such as Ons verleden en ons heden (Our past and present) and Onze Staatsinrichting (Our political system). These books were widely sold and were reprinted several times. In this way Brother Modestus met a need for school books with a Catholic outlook on Dutch history and society.

In 1914 he was allowed to ‘rest’ in the brother community De Heuvel, the same house where Brother Andreas spent his last years. The two older brothers developed a friendship during those years and often went for walks together during recreation time.

The text published below was written during a retreat and dated 3 August 1919. Brother Modestus recalls his memories of Brother Andreas as a housemate and writes about his friend and fellow brother’s illness and death.

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You should be in my place and I in yours brother modestus spierings

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I, the undersigned, now aged sixty-six, first met Brother Andreas in 1867 or 1868, when I was a student at teacher training college and Brother Andreas supervised us for a number of months.

Kind and gentle man I don’t remember anymore why we thought he was a holy man.

Perhaps it was because that is what we had been told. I found him quite dry and did notice that he had a lot of trouble staying awake.

When supervising the table and the study room, he normally paced to and fro at the back of the class. When His Reverence left after a few months, he left no special impression other than that he was a kind and gentle man. Whether he was kind and gentle by nature, I do not know, but I never experienced him otherwise. I often heard it said that he had no authority as a teacher and that the boys in the lower classes ran riot. When I said that they would not do that with me, that I would grab them by the collar and throw them out if they tried, and that he should get angry now and again, the answer was: ‘You would, but Brother Andreas wouldn’t. He would never ever touch a child,’ and: ‘Absolutely not. Oh no, he would rather pray than be angry.’ No wonder he had no authority over the fledglings. A duty master once admitted

to the director of the boarding school, Brother Gregorius, that he had hit a boy, to which the brother director responded by pointing out the gentle Brother Andreas. ‘Yes, Brother Director’, was the answer, ‘but if we were all like Brother Andreas we would all be saints, in which case you could close your famous institute.’

That is the way it was. This is a story I have heard told by Brother Amandus.

Short stroll Let me show you the strength of his conscience. One day he asked the superior, Brother Ignacio, for permission to go for a short stroll on his way home from the mother house. The request was granted. When he was gone, I said to the brother director that he was not really going for a stroll, just taking the other way home, whereupon he replied: ‘He asks permission for other little things too.’ Brother Andreas sometimes went for a walk. One day I asked him if he wanted to join me for an hour for a walk, but he said that he had no time. No one was very eager to go that day, but I did find someone. That evening Brother Andreas approached me to ask if I had found a walking companion and whether I had had an enjoyable walk. When he heard that everything was all right, he was as happy as a child and added: ‘Good, but I should have gone with you, because you once came for a walk with me when you would rather have stayed at home.’

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Trespassing

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On one of our walks we came to a gate leading to farmland on the other side of the railway. I said: ‘Go on, open it.’ Brother Andreas may have been the oldest, but said nothing. One of the brothers suggested that it might get us into trouble with the National Railways. I resumed: ‘Come, it’s OK. It’s only a skip and a jump.

I wouldn’t worry about trespassing.’ That was too much for Brother Andreas, who exclaimed: ‘Brother Modestus, how can you say that?’ I was suddenly faced with a dilemma: brotherly love or trespassing. ‘Oh Brother Andreas,’ I said, ‘The whole world belongs to our Lord. Saint Paul says that we are God’s children and therefore his heirs. We can safely cross the railway line.’ So we crossed it. Brother Andreas replied: ‘All right then’, and crossed it too. It is quite likely that he will have worried about the incident for the rest of the day and perhaps even into the evening. In this way I may have unintentionally got His Reverence into trouble more than once, but never out of spite or anything like that, because I held him in high esteem – higher perhaps than those who thought of him as a bit slow and sanctimonious. I loved him very much and had no trouble conversing with him during our walks.

He was a well-read man.

Novena During the last years of his life he suffered with his right arm, his shoulder, I believe. He even learned to write with his left hand because of it. The brother director once proposed praying a novena

with him and another brother for a cure, if he was agreeable to the idea. He did not have anything against doing it, but believed it was better not to pray the novena, as it did not do him any harm to suffer a little for Our Dear Lord. During Mass, when the brothers made the sign of the cross the aching arm had to take part too, for as long as possible. I often felt sorry for him. When he later recovered, the arm was once again put to full service. Incidentally, when he prayed, not even whilst performing the Stations of the Cross, I never noticed anything unusual about him apart from his profound devoutness. That seemed to be the maxim in his life: Strive for perfection, but not to be special.

Last walk About a month before he died he had a bout of diarrhoea – a cold I believe. As everyone was familiar with his love of abstinence, and his reputation for leaving everything to the superior, everyone was surprised that the doctor was not sent for. He made a reasonable recovery. Fourteen days before his death Brother Andreas walked to Berkel near Tilburg, together with the brother director, Brother Melchior and myself, to visit his brother Christ. On the way the brother director asked him how he was and he replied that everything was all right. We spent about an hour in Berkel.

The brother director settled his affairs and Brother Andreas seemed to be in the best of health. His niece, who had been wedded there and to whom the farmhouse belonged, remarked on how fit and healthy he looked, as did her husband and his brother. He did indeed look well. Brother Andreas enjoyed a sand-

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wich and smoked a cigar. When we were ready to leave for Tilburg, his family did not want Brother Andreas to return on foot. The carriage was brought round and they took us back to Tilburg. The Wednesday after, Brother Andreas was to go to his other brother on business in Helvoirt, together with the brother director. The journey was postponed because of bad weather. The following day, Brother Andreas became very ill.

Congratulations The same doctor who had treated his arm was sent for. He said that Brother Andreas was not to be transported to the mother house. A brother from the mother house was to nurse him in the brother house of the Sacred Heart at de Heuvel. The evening of the next day Brother Andreas was given the last rites, which caused general consternation. After receiving the last sacraments with extreme devoutness and renewing his eternal vows, the brothers congratulated him. He was in such good spirits that I said: ‘Brother Andreas, in two days time you will be back at school’, to which he answered: ‘Yes, yes, I do not believe that this illness will kill me either.’ However, his condition did not improve; it worsened.

Do not forget us On Friday 3 August, I visited the patient before I went to school.

As I arrived I heard Brother Victorinus, the nurse, say to Brother Andreas: ‘Today you are going to heaven.’ Brother Andreas was at

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peace with that and requested that the brothers remember him in prayer. Brother Victorinus gave his promise and asked Brother Andreas not to forget the brothers either. No, he would never forget them. When I asked him a short while later how he was, he said: ‘Fine’, but added that he had so little faith in God. I said that many saints, including Saint Alphonsus had felt the same, but that he should express his confidence in the Lord and in Our Dear Lady in his prayers as often as he could, and that he should not trust in himself, but in God and Our Dear Lady. (I do not know if this was theologically sound.) I said that I would ask the boys at school to pray for him and he approved. As the day passed so the hour of death drew closer.

Loud scream That evening at around eight o’ clock we all went to the sick room.

Brother Andreas was dying. His father confessor was sat at his bedside and was saying some short prayers, which Brother Andreas repeated. When his father confessor, the Reverend van Riel, chaplain at de Heuvel, left him, Brother Plechelmus took over. Brother Andreas repeated everything for as long as he could. He became increasingly short of breath. Suddenly he opened his dying eyes.

I thought he was looking for someone and that he focused his broken eyes on me, but I must have imagined it. His breathing became more and more laborious. I was sat at the end of the bed, together with Brother Salvius, when all of a sudden I saw him stick out his tongue and Brother Andreas let out a loud scream. Then he drew back his tongue. Shortly afterwards, he stuck out his

tongue again and let out another scream, like someone who was about to have something horrible put in his mouth. Then Brother Andreas was dead.

Invoking the deceased That same evening we started our annual retreat. We prayed for Brother Andreas and invoked him. His father confessor said to us: ‘It is all right to invoke him; I will do the same. Often, when Brother Andreas knelt at my feet in the confessional box, I thought that our roles should be reversed: You should be in my place and I in yours …’

I will leave it at this, until I think of something else to write. These memoirs were written during the annual retreat of 1919 (1–10 August).

Holy Brother Andreas, pray for me and protect me, my body and soul, although I am not worthy. I often invoke him and would like to advise all brothers to do so. ‘If y obtained anything special? No, did not ask for it either.’ My poor soul is the main thing, but my worldly wellbeing is commended to him too. He will continue to pray for me until I and all his fellow brothers have joined him in heaven.

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brother paschasius van loon Carpenter and duty master

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When brother paschasius van loon (1859–1941) from Rotterdam entered the congregation of brothers in 1888, he became a carpenter in the mother house. In 1891 he took his eternal vows in Tilburg. As a carpenter he was sometimes sent to other communities for short periods to work. As a result he led a varied life and travelled a lot. After all, the brother houses needed a lot of chores doing and they were happy to entrust this to the handy Brother Paschasius. In addition to the mother house and other communities in Tilburg, he spent periods working at Ruwenberg, in Maaseijk, Willemstad (1891–1894) and Grave (1909–1919) where he did carpentry, building and paint work. In 1919 he was sent to Santa Rosa in Curaçao and in 1922 he was transferred to the community in Paramaribo, where he died in 1941.

The last year of his noviciate (1890–1891), Brother Paschasius worked as a duty master at Ruwenberg under the guidance of Brother Andreas. In a text written on 6 August 1919, in Willemstad, he recounts his experiences of working with Brother Andreas. The skilled carpenter expresses a critical view on the furniture at Ruwenberg and as a craftsman gives a respectful, yet matter-of-fact opinion of his fellow brother Andreas’s achievements.

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Wobble

An ordinary life of extraordinary virtue brother paschasius van loon

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As I have been asked to write down what I remember about Brother Andreas van den Boer, I would like to do so for its own sake and for the edification of his fellow brothers.

Any comments about my manner?

I was at Ruwenberg with Brother Andreas for a year, from 1891 to 1892. I was duty master for the priest students and Brother Andreas was their director at the time. I believe that Brother Andreas was someone who sought perfection by doing ordinary things with extraordinary virtue. I cannot remember him doing anything contrary to our rules or practices. In 1891 I took my vows and went to Curaçao. When I said my farewells to Brother Andreas he asked me whether I had any comments about his manner that may have hindered me. I said the only thing I could think of was that he had kept me waiting a while on a few occasions before taking over supervision, but added: ‘I was only a trainee. You may have done so on purpose at the request of the superiors to test me.’

He did not say anything, but laughed.

I did notice that he often struggled to stay awake in chapel. He did his best to fight it in any way he could. The students sat on the two back benches of the chapel. Brother Andreas would sit in the side passage on a wooden prayer stool and I sat behind the students’ benches. The prayer stools were made by our brother carpenter who had a deserved reputation for making lopsided things. As a consequence, the stools did not sit level and had a tendency to wobble. Every time Brother Andreas started feeling sleepy, the first thing he did was to lift his arms off the stool and sit up straight. If that did not help, he lifted his feet from the ground too, which – to our amusement – made him wobble gently.

Counting words You would expect someone like Brother Andreas to seize every opportunity to learn spiritual lessons. Perhaps he did so for himself, but it did occur to me that he rarely did so for others. If I or anyone else expressed any inner thoughts on such occasions, then he joined in wholeheartedly, but he was seldom the first to say anything. Perhaps he was too modest for that. I sometimes felt secretly amused when he was talking about things he was not very sure about. He would continuously say things like ‘If I am not mistaken, it is like this’, or ‘It is so long ago, that I can no longer say with certainty, but I believe it is like this.’ Then he would hold his index finger in front of his mouth and count his words one by one as if he was dictating a telegram and had to pay for every word.

How afraid he is again of lying, I would think to myself.

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A bit narrow-minded I do not believe he was a very emotional man. I always thought he was a kind, gentle and serious man, even a little dry, but one who forced himself to partake in ordinary life and conform to others out of virtuousness. I remember him, for example, helping to perform a puppet show with such gravity as if it was a very serious matter. That is why the brothers and older boys enjoyed and appreciated his contribution so much on such occasions. Another incident I remember at Ruwenberg between Brother Andreas and me was the time when I had started telling the students some of the stories about the life of Saint Gerard Majella. They were very interested and asked me to bring the book along and read from it, which I did. When Brother Andreas joined them, they were still enthusiastically talking about it. Later he approached me about it and voiced his disapproval. What if reading that book made them want to become Redemptorists? ‘But Brother Andreas,’ I replied, ‘Does it matter how good is done? Perhaps, if they were to become Redemptorists, they could do more good than if they stayed with us?’ But he could not accept that. ‘If they are here now to become priests in our congregation, we should guide them in that direction.’ At the time I thought it was a bit narrow-minded, but it is quite possible that his love for the congregation made him say it.

If we had many such saints In 1900, I was back at Ruwenberg as duty master of the students.

Brother Andreas was a teacher there at the time; I believe he

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taught German, the art of handwriting and perhaps some other subjects, I am not quite sure anymore. He was always willing to help me if I needed his help for anything. I was there with him for three years, but just like I said about the year before my departure to Curaçao, I never saw him do anything contrary to the rules or customs of the congregation. Back then people sometimes said: ‘Brother Andreas is a holy person, but it would be quite difficult if we had too many saints here, as it would make a proper mess of things; this was a reference to the lack of authority he had over the children, rather than his virtuousness. What beneficial influence his punctuality and virtuousness had on the children, is hard to tell. Only God knows the answer to that.

Students As a person he did not achieve a lot. As mentioned above, I have always heard that he had little authority over the children. He was better with the older students who were a little wiser and respected him because of his virtuousness. Furthermore, a large part of his life as a brother was spent as a director to the students who were trained for priesthood in our congregation. The courses usually started with twelve or thirteen boys between the ages of twelve and thirteen. They remained students until they were eighteen or nineteen. Then they officially became brothers and their student years at Ruwenberg were over. So they spent five years under the directorship of Brother Andreas. I believe he was there for six courses, which covers a time span of 6 x 5 = 30 years.

The results of these thirty years of work, at least for the congrega-

tion, were not what you can call brilliant. Many of the students did not make it to the priesthood. Of those who did, three left the congregation during his time as director, until finally all the others, albeit at the request of Rome, left too. So I finish as I started by saying: As far as I know or have seen, there was nothing special about him but for the silent radiance that emanates from an ordinary life lived with extraordinary virtue.’

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brother maximino art S Education inspector

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brother maximino arts (1876–1935) went to the Episcopal teacher training college run by the brothers in ’s Hertogenbosch and entered the congregation in 1893. He completed the major part of his noviciate in the new brother house in Zwolle, where he took his eternal vows in 1897. As a teacher he did the rounds and worked in various places: Ruwenberg (1897–1900), ’s Hertogenbosch (1900-1903), Oisterwijk (1903–1905), Zwolle (1905–1908), Tilburg (1908–1914), Zwolle again (1914–1917), Cuijk (1917–1919) and finally again in ’s Hertogenbosch (1919–1935). He was an educator at heart, who in addition to his teaching was also active in the Episcopal teacher training college and took on many other educational activities outside the scope of the congregation.

He worked at an adult education institute, the Volksuniversiteit, where he gave classes to the unemployed, youth leaders and prison warders. He had a heart condition and died at the relatively young age of fifty-nine.

Brother Maximino was also an education inspector, and in that capacity he visited all the brother schools. That is how he knew Brother Andreas, whom he had to inspect on several occasions. He is more capable than anybody else of describing Brother Andreas’s attitude towards education and what his didactic views were. It is notable that as an inspector Brother Maximino passed critical judgement on the work of the teacher, but that as a fellow brother he was very taken by Brother Andreas’s attitude and personality. In the following letter to the general superior of the brothers, a letter which is not dated but was probably written in 1919, he insists that one should seriously look into writing a biography on Brother Andreas. He suggests that the story should not just be limited to the facts of his life, but that it should also evoke the mind and spirituality of this extraordinary man.

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Make children your equals

An inspiring role model brother maximino arts

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I would like to say a few words of reverence in memory of Brother Andreas. I do not have sufficient time or information to write a full biography and will therefore restrict myself to a few distinct characteristics. I would like to emphasise those qualities I personally experienced in Brother Andreas in his capacity as a teacher and educator.

Strong ideals When I first met Brother Andreas, I was about twenty years old.

Although I had absolutely no experience or insight into human nature, he came across very clearly as a compassionate man with strong ideals. He saw it as his solemn duty to put those strong ideals into actions wherever possible. He spoke to me alone on several occasions and with his apostolic fervour and temperament tried to convince me that all teachers should be filled with passion and life when addressing young people, so that their spoken words become revelations in their young hearts. He himself approached young people with strict principles of godliness, virtuousness and morality, accompanied by the burning desire to impress all kinds of virtues on children’s hearts.

His ideals as an educator were at odds with the spirit of the time.

He did not believe in the maxim of simply giving children a happy childhood. No, his idea of a harmonised and religious upbringing also included motivating children to work hard and do well in intellectual, moral and religious fields. He also expected good behaviour from his pupils in almost all circumstances. I would not want to claim, however, that this man, who appreciated his calling to prepare young souls for the great struggle of life, was a good teacher. He was probably too narrow-minded for that and had too little understanding of how a child’s mind works. He could never put himself in a child’s shoes. The big principle of Christian education ‘become as children’ in his devout heart assumed the meaning: ‘make children your equals’. His mistake was that he thought he could treat children as adults. When he was with the children, the man was all seriousness, punctuality, sense of duty, fear and formality. Anything that even hinted at jollity was unthinkable and he would never stand for it in class. He could not tolerate a lot from the children and he certainly did not understand the art of turning a blind eye. I think he believed that every youthful impetuosity that remained unpunished marked a child’s soul. It always appeared to me that Brother Andreas clearly lacked the pedagogic skills that would have enabled him to help shape the children’s characters.

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If only I could …

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The strange thing is, however, that this lacklustre educator who had nothing in common with children was in later years highly revered by all his former pupils. There is no other explanation than that he must have given them the impression of being an extraordinary man through his way of teaching or in how he approached them. He never referred to himself as an exceptional teacher or even a good educator. He often said: ‘I do not have any of the good qualities that are characteristic of a real teacher.’ Another of his heartfelt regrets was: ‘If only I could teach myself how to lead that full life and become more generous through the awareness of my inner strength ... But I don’t know how.’ Despite the fact that he did not know how, I would like to set this modest brother as an example for all teachers. Among the famous educators I cannot imagine a man from whom we can learn more than from Brother Andreas.

Imperturbable good humour Although he showed no talent for the heavy burden of work which had been placed upon his shoulders and was stultifying to so many, he carried the burden contentedly, even cheerfully. I have seen him face restless, rebellious students with such a tired and worrisome expression. However, as soon as he left the classroom, all negative thoughts were dispelled from his mind and everything seemed happiness and light. How did he so quickly regain his inner strength and calmness of soul, which was so merci-

lessly disturbed by his small tormentors? Where did this sorely tried man get his imperturbable good humour that made him such an amiable character? I would like to take this opportunity to take a closer look at a few of the idiosyncratic and engaging characteristics that typify him. He realized few of his plans. Nevertheless, when he was shattered at the end of a day’s teaching, his stern face still beamed with a passion for work and he still spoke fervently about expanding the Kingdom of God in the hearts of the children.

Staying young and spirited Brother Andreas’s life was difficult in other respects too, and not only for him, but for us all: ‘Man’s life on earth is a struggle.’ Show me a teacher who has not experienced moments of great depression. Oh, how mysterious life sometimes appears to all impulsive and thoughtful characters. How difficult it is to express what goes on in the depths of our soul during life’s struggles. How numerous are those who see their sombre pessimistic moods as a dark shadow upon their lives? Despondency and disappointment gnaw at their life force. Such people need an example to help them become strong and stay young and spirited, as we all do. It is possible to stay young and spirited. I know men with wrinkly faces, with youthful smiles and a twinkle in their eye. Those are the men and women that children are attracted to, because they recognise something within them. Brother Andreas stayed young too. At the age of seventy he still wanted to study child language and life so that his writing would appeal to children. Although he did not

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have the talent to be a children’s writer, his last story in De Engelbewaarder (The Guardian Angel) was considerably better than his earlier children’s stories. In one sentence: The life of Brother Andreas is the antithesis of the dejection and fear many a teacher is burdened with. Our profession lends itself to dissatisfaction. Every student makes his or her demands on a teacher, and every teacher will have felt at some time or other that there are students who do not or cannot respond to his or her guidance. That is why I believe that all educators are sometimes despondent, or that they have days or even weeks when their spirits are in danger of sinking.

An inspiring role model Every profession that is seriously pursued, not only the teaching profession, has its difficulties, and that is why almost every person occasionally becomes disconsolate and low-spirited. What a heartening role model Brother Andreas could therefore be to everyone. What a great and useful piece of work would be performed by him who succeeded in capturing the essence of this exemplary man in a book. He is already a friend to many, but if there were to exist a correct portrayal of him, then he would become a good friend to many more. People could then reach out to him in the face of adversity. One could invoke his intercession to help follow his example, and in many a man’s heart he would bring patience, relief, hope, composure and peace.

Balance in work and life We all feel that we must go through a considerable struggle before we can achieve a balance in our work and lives, and we long for a living example. Brother Andreas is that example. He never lost his composure, even in the most difficult circumstances when all his efforts ended in utter failure. Whatever happened, he always retained his self-respect and did his duty. It is precisely this characteristic that shows the influence fundamental principles had on him. His sense of duty was so powerful, that it not only allowed him to control all his actions and thoughts, but it also allowed him to master his innermost impulses. I noticed more than once that his inner balance was never upset, even when a carefully prepared lesson that required immense effort to teach turned out to be totally unsuccessful. So, when the tormented man emerged from a classroom exhausted and he heard someone praise the congregation or a confrère, then you could see the reflection of inner joy on his face that sometimes shines through the eyes of excited children’s faces.

In search of an authentic portrayal People here in ’s Hertogenbosch have wanted a good biography for some time now, but add that the biography must follow the right path. The path does not start at birth and work its way chronologically through to his death, listing items and life events of greater or lesser importance. That is just a peripheral path. People do not want a chronicle of his life; they want to know about

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the man. They want a biography that clearly puts across his inner and external struggle, his aspirations and his deeds, so that the meaning of his life is made clear to all his devotees. In this way we are put in touch with the man himself, and only in this way can we be influenced by his purifying and edifying personality. Such a biography, they add here in ’s Hertogenbosch, must come more from the heart than the head, not to view the brother through rose-tinted glasses, but to accurately depict the struggler, the fighter and the man of deeds. I think that you will probably agree with the ’s Hertogenbosch confrères on this point. They see Brother Andreas as a sufferer who has found solace, a fighter who has triumphed. That is why he can become our life’s consoler, the one who gives us the strength to fight, and who inspires and motivates our selfish hearts.

Difficulties I have let some of the confrères of my community read what I have written here. They believe that I should have provided more details. My answer to this was that I was not privy to many details, and that I did not think that details were that important. The future biographer must penetrate Brother Andreas’s character and realm of thought with heart and soul and only record those details that influenced the deeper foundations of his character and the formation of his spiritual life. Only then would I expect a good biography to enlighten our spirits, tired and weary through misfortune or failed efforts, like a breath of fresh air. If anyone has the right to say to us: ‘Do not be afraid of difficulties’, it is Brother

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Andreas. I believe I can still hear him say: ‘It is good for our state of mind and spiritual growth, if our work is a heavy burden.’ I hope that his next biography will reflect his strength and give us the key to mastering our deepest fears and desires.

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brother tharcisio horsten General superior and historian

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b r o t h e r t h a r c i s i o horsten (1879–1952) from Tilburg was very focused on language and literature, just like the brothers Andreas and Amatus. He started his noviciate in 1896, as the old era was coming to a close. The first general superior, Father Franciscus Salesius De Beer retired in 1900 and died a year later. The renowned director of the teacher training college, Brother Xaverius Dijkhoff, who had led the school for thirty years, retired in 1897. Like many of his fellow brothers, Brother Tharcisio became a teacher, but also continued to study. He achieved his lower teaching certificate in French in 1900, his lower teaching certificate in English in 1904 and his teaching certificate in 1906. From that year onwards he taught at the brothers’ teacher training college, first in Tilburg, later also in ’s Hertogenbosch and from 1914 in the mother house in Tilburg. He made a name for himself by writing a Catholic history of literature for secondary schools, Stemmen van verre en dichtbij (voices from near and far) in five parts (1915–1919) and was involved in the new training institute RoomsKatholieke Leergangen in Tilburg and ’s Hertogenbosch, an initiative which would develop into the Catholic University of Nijmegen in 1923. Everything seemed to point to Brother Horsten, with his strong interest in literature and history and his friendships with Catholic literary scholars like L.C. Michels and Father Maximilianus van Dun, also taking the path of humanities. Life, however, decided otherwise. In 1926 he was elected general superior, a position he would hold for twelve years. Although he continued to read and write a lot during his time in office, so much so that he is

often depicted with a book in his hand, he did not have time for a serious book project until after he left office, in 1938. He then started two important projects: He became the editor of and main contributor to the new and informative Brothers’ periodical Heden en Verleden (Present and Past), and he started to write an official history of the congregation, a project he just managed to finish despite the war years and his quickly deteriorating health. The last of the three volumes of De Fraters van Tilburg (The Brothers of Tilburg, 1844–1944) was published in the year of his death, 1952.

Of course, the brother history written by Horsten also had to include a chapter about Brother Andreas. However, as a historian, Horsten believed that he did not have to write about any subjects that had been described elsewhere. This is why he did not write about the life of Brother Andreas, which had been covered by various authors, but primarily about what happened after his death. The text written by Horsten, therefore, does not contain many personal memories about Brother Andreas. It does, however, provide a lot of information on the development of the Brother Andreas devotion. From his various viewpoints as a historian, an involved fellow brother and a responsible former general superior, Horsten describes how the devotion grew steadily and was increasingly structured by the brothers. He completed his story in 1944, when preparations were being made for the process of beatification, which would eventually start after the war in 1946 (to be finalised only in 1982).

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A person with special blessings from God brother tharciscio horsten

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On 3 August 1917, the first Friday of the month, Brother Andreas van den Boer capped his devout life with a venerable death. Brother Andreas was born on 24 November 1841, and died famous and holy in Tilburg in the brother house of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at almost 75 years of age, 58 of which he spent in our congregation. He worked at Ruwenberg for many years in education, including the training and formation of future priests for the congregation, whose leader he was from 1871, until he was replaced in 1900. He spent the last years of his life in Tilburg. He did not accomplish any remarkable achievements during his life, except that he trod the path to sainthood with conviction and dedication.

Miraculous During his life many of his fellow brothers already regarded him with silent devotion as a special person blessed by God. When Brother Andreas gave his holy soul to God on the first Friday of August 1917, and the press published the news of his death in a short article, many in the congregation and many of his former students, especially from Ruwenberg, were convinced that heaven had gained a holy intercessor. The miraculous thing was that when this quiet and modest man, who was so friendly and yet so deadly serious, who always averted his gaze, but was at the same time talkative and far from stiff, always calm and composed,

whom no one ever saw break any of the many religious rules and regulations, who never sought anyone’s attention, whose guise had nothing that could attract attention, a man absorbed in God, who never meddled in the outside world except when obedience obliged him to do so, who always had the air of being very strongly aware of living in the presence of God, was laid to rest in the graveyard of the mother house, it was not the end. There were brothers who had died before and after him who were revered by their contemporaries, lived saintly lives and one who died a holy death, and yet they did not endure beyond the grave. The miraculous thing was that for Brother Andreas it was a beginning.

In moments of need Brother Andreas had always wanted privacy, and he never thought that anyone ever saw anything special in him. However, the Father, who can see into the soul, started to reward. God inspired faith in the hearts of many in and outside the congregation, who had known Brother Andreas and had admired his devout life in silent devotion. They started to invoke Brother Andreas in moments of need, which is only human, and their prayers were heard. They said that their prayers were answered because of the intercession of Brother Andreas. Who started it, and where and how? Nobody knows, but we can confidently say: It is the Lord’s will and it is wonderful. Brother Andreas became a never-ending source of inspiration. He, who had always avoided people and rumours, was suddenly the centre of devotion, and the circle of devotees continued to expand. The brother house in Tilburg kept

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on receiving reports of prayers being answered. It became a neverending stream. It soon required some organisation, which is why in 1924 the Brother Andreas Bureau was established in the mother house to deal with everything that was related to Brother Andreas.

It received and processed correspondence, stored any gifts received, and upon request published any prayers that were answered in De Engelbewaarder (The Guardian Angel).

Under lock and key The most assiduous promoter for the devotion to Brother Andreas was Brother Dorotheus van Santvoort, also sometimes referred to as the ‘Apostle of the Prayer Association’ and who looked after the Brother Andreas cause until his death on 10 June 1923 with unparalleled enthusiasm. He quickly succeeded in interesting the ecclesiastical authorities – in particular the vicar-general of the diocese of ’s Hertogenbosch, Msgr Pompen, who always took a lively interest in anything concerning our congregation – in the remarkably busy and growing devotion to the recently deceased Brother Andreas. As early as 17 July 1919, Msgr Pompen wrote a letter to the brothers, in which he asked all the brothers to write down what they remembered about Brother Andreas. To ensure that the accounts were systematic (as if required for a future process), Msgr Pompen’s circular letter gave a detailed list of points the accounts had to include. Further instructions were that everything that had belonged to Brother Andreas had to be collected, such as clothes, books, writings, utensils, etc. It all was to be kept under lock and key and now resides at the mother house.

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Diocesan investigation

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More than one hundred written accounts about the virtues and holy life of Brother Andreas were received. Because of the nature of these accounts and the increasing number of prayers being heard, it was decided to ask Msgr F.A. Diepen, bishop of ’s Hertogenbosch, to set up a Diocesan investigation to officially look into the heroic virtues of God’s servant. However, Msgr Diepen believed that it was not yet the right time to start the Episcopal process.

That is why the case of Brother Andreas was officially put on hold.

Events, however, continued to take their course.

and paint the portraits of Brother Andreas we have today. Those who knew Brother Andreas well, however, agree that there is something missing in these portraits. Perhaps they are missing the fundamental truth that nobody can put into words, the reflection of his calm, happy and inward-looking soul on his face, or something in his appearance as a whole. The pictures based on these photographs or the painted portraits are usually accompanied by a piece of material worn by Brother Andreas and distributed free of charge by the Brother Andreas Bureau. The prayer printed on the back, asking for help ‘through intercession of your faithful servant, Brother Andreas’s, has been approved by the church authorities.

Biographies and prints A border of flowers Many, especially those who did not know Brother Andreas personally, wanted to know more about the holy man; they wanted a bibliography. Brother Frumentius van Hulten, who had known Brother Andreas for years at Ruwenberg and had been his superior for some, complied with this wish. He wrote a book published in 1921: Frater Andreas. Een levensbeeld (Brother Andreas: An impression of his life). Many people wanted to have a picture of Brother Andreas. But this was difficult, because there were no pictures of him. One of the books that Brother Andreas had often read stated that the desire to be photographed only betrays one’s vanity. That is why Brother Andreas was never photographed alone. Some group photographs did, however, exist at Ruwenberg. These were taken on festive occasions when Brother Andreas simply complied with his superior’s wishes, and later used to create the pictures

The Brother Andreas Bureau also had collectible medallions with effigies of Brother Andreas and larger plaques made, which could be purchased. The circle of devotees continued to expand. There were pilgrimages to his grave to seek help or give thanks in prayer.

People put flowers on his grave or hung flowers on the simple burial cross. Sometimes a devoted, thankful hand would arrange a border of flowers around the grave. A woman in Breda who passed her teaching exams went straight from the examination hall to the station, took the train to Tilburg, looked for the brother house and when taken to the grave knelt on the ground and prayed for a long time. Then she stood up, picked some flowers in the garden of the monastery, laid them around the grave, knelt once more, put her hand on the earth that covered the body and

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then made a large sign of the cross. Then she went back to the station and travelled to her mother to tell her the good news ‘that she had passed her teaching exams thanks to the intercession of Brother Andreas. This is one of hundreds of examples…

Young women of South America 98 Thanks to the publication of the prayers that were answered in the magazine De Engelbewaarder, Brother Andreas became known in Belgium, Indonesia, Dutch Guiana and Curaçao and there are stories about prayers being answered from those countries and regions too. From Curaçao the devotion spread to different republics in South America. On Curaçao, the Sisters of Roosendaal have a Spanish boarding school for wealthy young women (comparable to our former Colegio Santo Tomas). These students are mainly from Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Quito and Peru. The sisters teach the young women of South America about the devotion to Brother Andreas, which is why pictures or plaques of the simple Brother Andreas can be found in many grand houses in those South American countries and why young women and children carry a medallion of Brother Andreas in their bags or wear it around their necks.

General example In 1922 the devotion to Brother Andreas was extended. At the time there was a Viennese priest in Tilburg, Father Theophorus Max, responsible for the children from Austria and Germany who

found shelter and care in the Netherlands during and after the 1914–1918 war thanks to the help of the RC Housing Committee.

This priest also heard about Brother Andreas and started studying his life. He believed that he was doing his fellow-countrymen and women and the German-speaking Catholics a great service by describing the life of Brother Andreas to them. In 1922 Frater M. Andreas von Tilburg was published, dedicated to the benefactors of the Viennese and German children in Tilburg. The detailed biography was translated into Dutch in 1925. Below is an extract of the preface by vicar-general Msgr J. Pompen: ‘…It is very remarkable that the quiet life of Brother Andreas immersed in God makes such an impression in a time when the spiritual life of so many people is weakening by the day and religion is limited purely to outward appearances. Luckily the core of the religious population still understands that such a private life, such an internal life as Brother Andreas’s ennobles and sanctifies man and is therefore most agreeable to God. How else can we explain the large number of recoveries and extraordinary events that are attributed to prayers answered by Brother Andreas? Father Max also heard about the prayers that were answered. After thoroughly studying Brother Andreas’s way of life, he came to the conclusion that if judged correctly, Brother Andreas must be the right man in our time to serve as an example of charity, simplicity, love of work and a life of prayer. Inspired by this, he also decided to introduce the Germans to the “secrets of the internal life” of Brother Andreas, which everyone could adopt to achieve the same spiritual nobility, the same happiness and peace and the same sanctity”…’

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Steady growth of devotion The devotion expanded rapidly and took on new forms. On 3 August 1930, on the anniversary of Brother Andreas’s death, the first pilgrimage visited his grave. It consisted of eighteen people from the city of Bergen op Zoom… On Sunday, 30 July 1939, the pilgrimage paid its tenth visit. As always, prayers were said at the grave and the pilgrims paid homage in the chapel of the brother house by lighting candles. They visited the Brother Andreas Bureau, where devotional pictures were handed out and they could buy plaques and collectible medallions. In its tenth year around eighty people made the pilgrimage from Bergen and many other places – clear evidence of the steady growth of the devotion to Brother Andreas. That is why the case of Brother Andreas was put to Msgr Diepen again in 1932 and the request to take measures to establish a Diocesan investigation was repeated. Msgr Diepen, however, remained wary of getting involved. The bishop was of the opinion that the case was not yet ready for official consideration and wanted to wait until stronger evidence was available.

A stomach relic A very extraordinary thing happened in 1937 concerning the recovery of Father Aloysius van den Heuvel in the Trappist monastery in Tilburg. In his account Father Aloysius relates that he had been suffering stomach problems for some time. In February 1937 the problem became quite alarming. Father Aloysius started vomiting blood, and was rushed to St Elisabeth Hospital

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in Tilburg. ‘After thorough observation and examination it was decided that there was nothing they could do’ and after four weeks of treatment in hospital, the patient was brought back to the monastery. ‘Tests had revealed that I had cancer and, according to the doctors, only a few weeks to live. But things turned out very differently. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of my ordination I was incredibly lucky to be reading Mass again, and in July 1937 I was discharged from the sick ward and returned to our normal way of life.’ Father Aloysius attributes his extraordinary story to the intercession of Brother Andreas: ‘I had often been told about the many prayers that had been heard through the intercession of Brother Andreas. That is why I put my faith more into the help I hoped to get from him. I also used to wear, and still do to this day, a devotional picture with a relic of Brother Andreas on my person close to my stomach. I prayed with unfaltering faith to God’s servant. Others in and outside the Trappist monastery prayed with him, and the result has amazed everyone to this day.

I am therefore convinced, as is everyone else, that it was Brother Andreas who brought about my totally unexpected recovery.’

Highest point of glory Does God have plans for our humble, holy fellow brother? Who knows! The fact is, that now, more then twenty-five years after his death, the devotion and faith continue to grow and more and more people are looking to Brother Andreas for support in their hour of need. Not a day goes by without the Brother Andreas Bureau having proof of that, although, since the De Engelbewaarder is

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no longer printed (because of the shortage of paper these war days) we no longer have a way of publishing the prayers that have been answered and thankful devotees are forced to make do with the advertisement columns of a daily newspaper. Since 1942, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the holy death of Brother Andreas, his case has constantly held the attention of the congregation’s polity. The approaching centenary of the congregation naturally caused attention to be focused even more strongly on the fellow brother through whom the congregation achieved its highest point of glory. It was the right time to finally deal with the Brother Andreas case. While the congregation’s polity was preoccupied with those thoughts and plans in 1944, Providence directed circumstances in such a way that the path to be followed in the Brother Andreas case was indicated by friends in authority in Rome. That is how in 1944 the first definite and official step was taken on the path that would lead to setting up a Diocesan investigation and the ecclesiastical process in Rome, to honour God and for the glorification of his servant Brother Andreas.

brother amatus hoseman S Colleague, fellow brother and confidant

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Of all fellow brothers, brother amatus hosemans (1865– 1946) from Tilburg was probably the one closest to Brother Andreas and as fellow teacher and housemate also shared many things with him. Amatus had been sent to the Ruwenberg boarding school at an early age and knew Brother Andreas as a teacher and duty master. In 1882 he started his noviciate in Tilburg and in 1884 he returned to Ruwenberg, but as a duty master and teacher.

It was a period when Ruwenberg was undergoing changes and those in charge wanted to introduce a new and less severe climate.

Brother Andreas and Brother Amatus were two of the brothers responsible for the actual implementation of this policy. Amatus, like Andreas, was one of the brothers who continued studying and he passed his lower teaching certificate in French in 1888, his lower teaching certificate in English in 1892 and his teaching certificate in 1894. He was one of the most prominent teachers at Ruwenberg and was also director for some time. In 1902, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the school he wrote a very lively chronicle about life at school. His career as a teacher would also lead him to other brother schools: ’s Hertogenbosch (1892), Tilburg where he became director of the brothers’ teacher training college (1906–1912), ’s Hertogenbosch (1916) and finally Zwolle where he became director of the ulo (advanced primary education, 1914–1943). Brother Amatus held an executive post as first brother elected in the board between 1908 and 1912, a period in which the congregation was strongly divided internally. Amatus was rewarded for this membership in the board by a demotion to the remote city of Zwolle, far from the administrative centre of

the Tilburg mother house. At the end of the war Brother Amatus returned to the mother house in Tilburg, where he died in 1946.

Amatus Hosemans wrote well and was prolific with a vast body of works besides the above-mentioned chronicle about Ruwenberg.

Like so many other brothers, he usually published under a pseudonym. The fact that he had at least ten different pen names and signatures for his publications in magazines and newspapers, school books, translations, poems and plays typifies the productivity and the creativity of this man. As mentioned, Brother Amatus Hosemans was Brother Andreas’s friend and confidant. That was not just because their classrooms were next to each other, but also because they had both studied French and shared a great interest in languages and literature. They were more than good colleagues and literary friends; they were also of the same mind as far as religion was concerned. That is how – through his own writings and because he was able to give the early biographers extensive first-hand information – Brother Amatus became a key witness to the life of Brother Andreas. Published below are parts of the chronicle of Ruwenberg, which he re-edited during the war years (and part of which was published posthumously in the brother magazine Heden en verleden [Present and Past], 1953), with excerpts from a letter written to the general superior, dated 11 August 1944, in answer to a long list of questions. The fragments that most strikingly portray the life of Brother Andreas, are presented together as a new text.

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With love and meticulous punctuality brother amatus hosemans

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Shall I tell you something else about Brother Andreas? There is a whole biography about him. I was the one who provided most of the information to Father Max, the biographer, when he spent a few days with me in Zwolle. I think it is time to put the record straight about his reputation for punctuality. I would like to talk about some exaggerations regarding his punctuality, which some people invented to diminish his reputation. No one can have a higher opinion of Brother Andreas than I, who was lucky enough to enjoy his trust. He came to me, who was so much younger and had been his pupil, with all kinds of things.

Too meticulous, too holy Most people who had close contact with Brother Andreas were a bit wary of him at first. He was too meticulous for them, too holy.

Slowly, however, their silent admiration for this man would grow, a reverence that would never leave them, not even many years after they left the institute. Although at first glance he did not appear to be the world’s greatest teacher, those that came into contact with Brother Andreas were the most deeply inspired and touched by him. One explanation for such an extraordinary influence is that those that met him discovered this simple man’s saintliness, which was drawn from sixty years of ascetic life and fifty years of teaching. He was always punctual and polite down to

the last detail and dedicated himself to the task of tutor and teacher in words and deeds, all of which was in effect directed at God. He was a man who preferred to keep a low profile and be true to himself in everything he did. Perhaps it was because they understood that his heroic struggle to be faithful to a simple life went beyond the simple things themselves and that his words and deeds effectively only had one direction – they were directed at God – and that his love of God and the desire to fulfil God’s will took up his whole life. And so it happened that he, probably without even knowing it himself, came to the fore and had an extraordinary impact.

Watching I had lessons from Brother Andreas as a boy of twelve. He taught me the basics of French. As a child I saw him cultivate every virtue I expected to see in a real brother: friendliness, patience and devotion. I admired the friendly patience he had with a fellow student, who always claimed that he had learned his lessons, but never knew anything. I later shared life with him at Ruwenberg for twenty-two years and never noticed anything in him that was contrary to the virtues which the Holy Rules demand from us. He cultivated both the divine and the cardinal virtues in a heroic way.

I often watched him to see if he made any mistakes. I even tried to test him to see if I could get him to break any of the rules, such as the rule of silence by showing him a book and asking him what he thought about it. I could not get him to speak a single word. I had to be satisfied with a friendly nod.

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The burdens of his post

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He accepted the strictness of religious life and the burdens of his post with love and the most precise punctuality. The burdens of his post stemmed from the lack of authority over the children of the institute. He did, however, exercise authority over the students who were being trained as priests for the congregation. The children of the institute knew that he was a saint and revered him as such. Nevertheless – o âge sans pitié – in class they were troublesome, garrulous and difficult, especially with Brother Andreas.

Although they would respectfully listen to him admonishing them in his mild-mannered way, they would not fear any severe punishment from him. Brother Andreas regularly carried that burden – a terrible burden for those speaking from experience – without getting angry or losing his temper.

A certain flaw When I succeeded Brother Tharcisius in the classroom next to Brother Thomas’, Andreas was teaching German there. In the winter of 1890–1891 things were very tense. There was a lot of unrest. One evening one of the students held up a small red flag, which was greeted with general laughter. I jumped from my desk and placed myself in front of the window in the door. Of course, all fell quiet immediately. The following day Brother Andreas approached me. If I had no objections, he would ask the brother director if we could swap lessons – I could take over his class and he would teach my boys. He must have thought about it the

evening before, because there was a certain flaw in him proposing it himself. The welfare of the young most certainly allowed him to rise above that.

How to remain patient If you wanted to find a substitute at Ruwenberg, if you were otherwise engaged, you went to Brother Andreas, because he was usually prepared to help. ‘If the brother director agrees, I would be pleased to help’, was his standard answer. It did not matter whether he was asked to supervise the playground or the classroom; it was all the same to him. As he had no authority, he noted the pupils’ shortcomings on a slate, in French of course, for the class brother to find, who would then have to deal with the pupils concerned. Jansen n’entre pas bien. Willems parle. Martens n’est pas attentif pendant la prière, Bakker is fidgeting (Jansen’s participation is inadequate, Willems talks too much, Martens doesn’t pay attention during prayer). Apparently he did not know what ‘fidgeting’ was in French, until I looked it up and wrote ‘to fidget = frimiller’ on the slate. After that he would write N.N. frimille. We would laugh and say: ‘He knows how to remain patient and will go straight to heaven. We get angry on his behalf and will later go to purgatory.’ We were always glad to have him supervise our classrooms, because then he would surely pray for our pupils, as they were his then too.

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Punctuality test For a long time he took over my class at Ruwenberg at around seven o’ clock, because I had to join the boys in the refectory at half past seven. After that I usually accompanied them to the recreation room. Every afternoon he asked what time he should be there, because I did not always finish teaching at the same time.

The pupils often spoke about Brother Andreas’s holiness and one day I decided to put his punctuality to the test together with the boys. The boys were to specify a different time for every day of the week and we would see if Brother Andreas would keep to it. Of course, I do not remember exactly which times were given, but it went something like this: On the Monday I asked Brother Andreas to be there at five to seven, on Tuesday at three minutes past seven, on Wednesday five past, etc. In the afternoon I would use some pretext to synchronise my watch with Brother Andreas’s, and the boys were given the time too.

The first evening, the classroom door opened precisely on time and in walked Brother Andreas. A stifled laugh from the boys: it was true. The second day he arrived on the dot again. This time they looked more serious: that was astonishing. On the third day it was the same again. The pupils gasped in amazement and would do so every day, because no matter how much I varied the time – one day even to half a minute – Brother Andreas always appeared at the specified time. That is how precise he was with everything a superior, or someone he regarded as his superior, would ask of him.

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Forbearing demeanour

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Everything he said and everything he did – his whole manner – was proof of the extreme care he took to preserve purity. His eyes were usually downcast and his demeanour forbearing. He would never cross his legs – at most he would sit with his feet crossed. He was very reserved but friendly towards people of the opposite sex.

He never physically touched anyone. Once, when Father Bolsius S.J., a former pupil, embraced him (a greeting which was not common in the Netherlands) in the presence of his confrères, he was startled and too embarrassed to know what to do.

The holy liar His constant praying and the devotion with which he received the Blessed Sacraments helped him to avoid making any mistakes and improve anything he considered to be wrong about himself. He was so critical of himself, that he accused himself of all kinds of wrongs every week in the Confession Chapter (a chapter where brothers could publicly confess their sins). We could not understand what he could possibly accuse himself of. With reference to these chapters he was sometimes called the ‘holy liar’.

Honouring

The simple truth He was totally uncomplicated, and in his work only sought God with whom he was totally absorbed. He was completely truthful, so that no one ever doubted anything he said. His love of the truth sometimes made us laugh. A story told during recreation time might have gone as follows: ‘Last week Tuesday I bumped into Father Superior in Torenstraat in ’s Hertogenbosch. Did I say Tuesday? I meant Wednesday.’ The story went on, but was interrupted by: ‘I do believe I was right in the first place. It was Tuesday.’ That is how it went. As a result, his narrative style was sometimes quite boring. I once heard a general superior, Father Drabbe, say: ‘If I was given different accounts on a matter during a visitation, I would question Brother Andreas about it. If he had an answer, it was always the simple truth.’

He scorned honour, wealth and worldly pleasures. He laughed about honour. He did not like people to give him honour. Once I had to write an article for a newspaper. I do not remember what it was about, but I had the chance to give Brother Andreas a mention. I told him: ‘André, how about I give you a mention in my article. He looked at me indignantly: “Mention me! What good will that do? For God’s sake let me be free’. I heeded his words so as not to hurt him.

Totally engulfed He brought honour and tribute to all the secrets of our Mass.

There was something very special, for example, about the tone of his Gloria Patri (Glory be to the Father). Christmas was a very special celebration for him, because of his devotion to the Mystery of the

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Incarnation. His extreme gratitude for this and for Mary’s part was also apparent in his religious fervour when he prayed the Angelus Domini. The way he knelt before the Most Blessed Sacrament, his most respectful demeanour in the chapel, his modesty, in short, his total engulfment in prayer after Holy Communion and during Mass was proof of his deep veneration for it. He also enjoyed talking about the greatness of this Blessed Sacrament, not only in class during religious education, but also during recreation. His mind was always focused on God. He was so inwardly focused, that during silentium he did not notice what was going on around him. If he was somewhere quiet, you could hear him praying to God under his breath. His whole appearance expressed this.

If you bumped into him in the hall or in the garden, you could feel that he was busy with God. Kindergarten He worshipped all saints as and when they were commemorated during the Ecclesiastical year. He wrote a novena book, with novenas for various saints. He translated Kindergarten, by Father Mättler, about the lives of young saints, from the German to encourage children to worship saints. He also wrote many articles for the magazine De Engelbewaarder (The Guardian Angel) to propagate devoutness among children. He had a vehement desire to spread our sacred faith. Some of his favourite literature included the annals of missionary work and other books on the same topic. He would often talk about missionary work to groups of brothers, who would listen with the greatest interest, because he was an in-

spiring storyteller and loved to share his enthusiasm for missionary work with his listeners. Whenever we saw it we said: ‘They must be talking about Catholic missionary work!’

Quiet reading room No matter how seriously Brother Andreas took life, he was always good-humoured during recreation, never loud or exuberant, but certainly cheerful. He was very pleasant to chat to. If we had permission to smoke, he joined in, probably so as not to be the odd one out, although I am convinced that he probably would rather not have smoked. He knew and enjoyed telling interesting proverbs and amusing anecdotes. Once when he was supervising the students in the reading room, who were sat working quietly, there was a sudden commotion. The duty master looked at the student on the corner of the first bench. He in turn looked round at the student on the second bench, who looked round at the third, etc., until the student on the last bench looked round at the statue of the Sacred Heart, which was stood against the back wall, and pointed at it accusingly. Brother Andreas blushed a little, as if his respect for the Sacred Heart had faltered for a moment.

His lips remained sealed If he was in the reading room, then silentium was maintained out of respect for him. Only because we revered him. We were convinced that he would never tell on others. We never did anything badly wrong, nor did we do anything that could lead to negative conse-

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quences. As a result he was not forced to impose the rules and he was happy with that. Blessed confrère, pray for us. I contributed to your holiness, by putting you to the test from time to time, to see whether you would do anything wrong. ‘Is it a good book, Andreas?’ He would nod his head in affirmation, but his lips remained sealed when talking was not strictly necessary. Say, Andreas, why don’t you perform a great miracle, so that we can build an altar to you?

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About the texts and illustrations

The text by Brother Tharcisio Horsten is a slightly abbreviated chapter from his history De Fraters van Tilburg (The Brothers of Tilburg), 1844– 1944 (Tilburg, 1946–1952), part 3, pp. 50–59. The other texts are handwritten texts from the archives of the Brother Andreas Bureau, at Gasthuisring in Tilburg. The file numbers are 10.2.5 (Victor Zwijsen), 10.3.4 (Paschasius van Loon), 10.3.5 (Modestus Spierings), 10.3.17 (Maximino Arts) and 12.8 (Amatus Hosemans) respectively. The text

by Brother Amatus is supplemented with excerpts from the chronicles of Ruwenberg (1852–1887 and 1901–1902, five typed notebooks), which is in the Ruwenberg section of the Brother Archives in Tilburg.

The purpose of this publication is to introduce Brother Andreas and the sources about his life to a wider public. It is not the intention to give a full and critical account of these sources. Some of the texts have been slightly modified where they might have been ambiguous and lead to misunderstanding. Spelling and punctuation has been modernised. Subheadings have been added to the texts to make them more accessible, which meant that some of the original paragraphs had to be changed. To prevent duplication, the texts of the Brothers Modestus, Tharcisio and Amatus were slightly abbreviated.

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List of illustrations

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Cover drawing: portrait of Brother Andreas by Brother Vincenzo de Kok (1911–1997) p. 2 Brother Andreas by Carl Itschert (1876–1936), oil painting from photograph, 1921 p. 6 The box bed in which Brother Andreas was born p 10 Brother Andreas on an old school photograph, 1879 p. 12 Four devotional pictures of Brother Andreas p. 18 The house in Udenhout where Brother Andreas was born p. 20 The interior of the parental house of Brother Andreas and Brother Andreas with his family, 1906 p. 22 An aerial photograph of Ruwenberg, c. 1950 p. 22 The façade of Ruwenberg in c. 1900 p. 24 The dormitory at Ruwenberg p. 24 The dining hall at Ruwenberg p. 26 The schoolyard at Ruwenberg, with Brother Andreas on the right p. 32 The mother house of the brothers in Tilburg. Drawing from 1894 p. 34 Brother Andreas’s cell in the De Heuvel community p. 36 Brother Andreas on a school photograph p. 38 Father Victor Zwijsen p. 44 Group photograph of the student priests with Brother Andreas and Rector Zweers

p. 48 Group photograph with twenty-two of the twenty-eight priests who had to leave the congregation in 1916. Many had been taught by Brother Andreas. Father Victor Zwijsen is the fourth from the left on the first row. p.50 The schoolyard at Ruwenberg, with Brother Andreas on the right p. 52 Brother Modestus Spierings (left on the first row next to Brother Andreas) on a group photograph of the De Heuvel brother community in c. 1916–1917 p. 60 The farm in Biezenmortel where Brother Andreas grew up p. 64 Brother Paschasius van Loon p. 70 The chapel in Ruwenberg p. 74 Brother Maximino Arts p. 86 Brother Andreas’s handwriting, initially with his right hand and later with his left hand. A text about a brotherly reprimand. p. 88 Brother Tharcisio Horsten in Manado p. 94 Brother Andreas’s grave with a rose bush in flower in c. 1930 p. 100 A prayer to Brother Andreas around a sick bed, photograph c.

1950 p. 102 A meeting of the Diocesan investigation, 1946 p. 104 Group photograph of the student at Ruwenberg in 1907 p. 106 Brother Amatus Hosemans p. 114 Brother Andreas and Brother Amatus during the Jubilee of Ruwenberg in 1902 p. 120 Procession during the translatio in 1968, when Brother Andreas’s grave was moved from the garden to the chapel of the mother house of the brothers in Tilburg p. 122 The occasion was also used to inspect the mortal remains before returning them to a sealed coffin

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Publications about Brother Andreas

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Several biographies have been written about Brother Andreas, the most recent being in Dutch: Frater Andreas van den Boer (Andreas Bureau, Tilburg 1998, 238 p.), written by Brothers Ben Westerburger and Toon Wouters. The book can now only be found second-hand and describes the life and experiences of Brother Andreas in an accessible way. It also contains an important list of sources and draws on many well-known as well as unknown accounts by fellow brothers, students, family members and acquaintances. There are two English books. The life of Frater Andreas van den Boer. Positio super virtutibus (Roma 1993, 1011 p.), written by Ben Westenburger and offering a very comprehensive documentation. A slightly older English-language biography is Brother Andreas van den Boer cmm. The mercy brother without frills. (Mosocho Kenya, 1991, 133 p.), written by Brother Anthony Koning. But both English books are difficult to be found, which is the reason of this new publication in English. Apart from English, there are still publications in Indonesian and in German: Seorang Frater cmm yang sederhana berbelaskasih dan kudus (Seri Spiritualitas cmm, Yafa Indonesia, 1996) in Bahasa Indonesia by Brother Pieter Jan van Lierop, and Frater M. Andreas von Tilburg. Ein Lebensbild (Tilburg 1922), 286 p., by Father Theophorus Max scj, the first extensive biography which was very influential and had several editions.

Nice pictures and objects from his life can also be seen at the exhibition about the history of the cmm Brothers in the generalate

of the brothers in Tilburg. The exhibition was prepared by Brother Caesarius Mommers and Carine van Vugt in 1994. Finally, there is the Brother Andreas website (fraterandreas.nl), which was created by Charles van Leeuwen and Paul Simons in 2006 at the request of the brothers.

Much has also been written about the history of the Brothers cmm.

The main publications in English are by brother Anthony Koning, In a Worldwide Brotherhood inspired by Mercy. The Brothers cmm 1844-2002 (Tilburg 2004, 228 p.) and by Joos van Vugt, Brothers at Work. A history of five Dutch congregations of brothers and their activities in Catholic education, 1840-1970 (Nijmegen 1996, 126 p.).

For those interested in further reading in Dutch, there are still some older books. First of all the bestseller Enigen uit velen. Fraters van Zwijsen in 22 portretten, edited by Joep Eijkens (Tilburg 1994), which paints a lively picture of the congregation, including a portrait of Brother Andreas. An essential source is Frater Andreas. Een levensbeeld (Tilburg 1921), 76 p., by Brother Frumentius van Hulten, which is the first biography with a classical and long-lasting portrayal of the ‘holy brother’. A partly fictitious life story, easy reading for a wider public, is offered by Sister M. Emerentia OP, Geluk dat in stilte groeide. Een verhaal van de levensopgang van een Brabantse jongen (Tilburg 1951, 155 p. Meritorious, but with not much new information is Frater Andreas. Kort bericht over een man die geruisloos door het leven ging (Tilburg 1972, 52 p., by M. Van Delft cssr. The special issue of the brothers’ magazine Ontmoetingen 27 (September 1968) is very valuable, it opens up new perspectives from many different authors and paints a modern picture within the framework of the resourcing of the congregation’s spirituality. The above shows that people from different cultures and religious backgrounds have contributed to the historiography of Brother Andreas.

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