BIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY

CANON TRIEST

Ghent 1836

Author's foreword

Many reasons prompted me to write Canon Triest's biography: the desire to perpetuate the virtues and talents of a beneficent man, who can be considered as an eternal example of true and indefectible charity; the hope of contributing to the glorification of religion, of which he was one of the most devoted apostles, and of his native land, of which he was one of the most honorable children, one of its most unadulterated glories, finally, the mysterious pleasure that one finds in showing, by honest and earned praise, one's gratitude for a man by whom one was loved, with the certainty of seeing public opinion ratify that praise and adopt it as the expression of public gratefulness.

In perusing the pages of this brochure, one will easily be convinced that it is true to life to assert that Canon Triest was a providential man. He always acknowledged that God had visibly upheld him in his unceasing endeavors to promote the welfare of his fellowmen, that the grace from above had made fruitful the seeds of dedication that it had sown in his heart, and that he had always been nothing but a humble instrument of God's mysterious designs for humanity.

Like all great men, Canon Triest was marvelously seconded by circumstances. He started his admirable institution at the beginning of our era, at a time when everything had been turned upside down and destroyed. The need of rest and social reorganization were deeply felt. All the welfare establishments were closed; poor people could not expect help from the religious communities that had been suppressed, despoiled or dispossessed. Religion, the mother of charity, began to breathe again after a long and bloody oppression. The honorable families, always so numerous in Belgium, who shared their patrimony with the indigent, were at a loss as to whom entrust their secret alms for fruitful and intelligent distribution.

Mr. Triest came along, armed with courage and prudence, and began the works of mercy, interrupted by anarchy and impiety and, invested with the confidence of the great families and public authorities, he succeeded within thirty years to wrap up all the illfated in the broad mantle of his inexhaustible charity.

However, although I underscore here the cooperation of Providence and the generosity of several families, I must, in all justice, proclaim that never was there a man more apt to fulfill that exalted mission of self-sacrifice and charity. Since the beginning of his priestly career up to his death, the poor and the miserable were the objects of his predilection and unswerving and unsparing concern. A natural sensitivity, not one vague and melancholic as with children of his times, but a manly sensitivity, ingenious in finding ways and means of solace for the suffering, held sway on all his thoughts and all the movements of his heart.

The Biography of Canon Triest

Peter Joseph Triest was born in Brussels, August 31st 1760, of respectable parents who considered a good education as the best inheritance they could pass on to their children. He began his studies at the Jesuit's College of his native city; but the Jesuits were suppressed in Belgium and he had to complete the humanities in Gheel, a village in the Antwerp province. He then completed his studies in philosophy at the ancient Louvain university, after which he entered the seminary in Mechelen (Marines) and was ordained to the priesthood June the 10th 1786. He was sent, in succession, as coadjutor to Our Lady at Mechelen in 1788, then in 1789 as coadjutor at Assche, close to Brussels, where he became curate-in charge in 1791. That same year he became vicar of the church at Our Lady of Hanswyk, in Mechelen. Typhus, that was rampant at the military hospital, gave the courageous priest the opportunity of manifesting the religious dedication of which he was to give such sublime proofs later on. That frightful epidemic caused awful ravages; fear and discouragement lay hold of all hearts; even those whose functions should have held them back escaped to a safe haven, far from death. Triest alone remained on duty; and, stronger than danger, he was everywhere at all hours, exerting himself to the limit to withstand the epidemic and bring to each and every one the help and consolation of religion.

So much work and so much spent energy exhausted him; he fell victim to the contagion. But God, who had his views upon him, did not allow him to succumb, he who was to dry so many tears, bring solace to so much suffering and relieve so much misery.

His talents and his priestly virtues attracted his ecclesial superior's attention. At the competitive examination, in Mechelen, 1797, he was named pastor and Canon at St. Peter's collegial church in Renaix (Ronse). At that period of his life we find his ma~st beautiful initiatives. The political circumstances forced the priest to go in hiding to avoid the persecutions of a wicked and despotic power. Canon Triest hid like the other priests, but more than the others he was sought out by the gendarmes because of his boldness in secrecy fulfilling the functions of his ministry and so making his capture more important. One evening, from his hiding place, he learned that the brigadier of the gendarmes' wife was in agony. What should he do? Let that person die without any religious help or, rather, jump into the wolf s mouth, that is into the hands of his archenemy, the brigadier? He listened only to the call of duty, went to the brigadier's home, in faithfulness to his ministry, by an agonizing woman. The brigadier came home, found TRIEST at his wife's bedside and was so moved by such generosity that he swore never to arrest the priest. In 1802, after the concordat, TRIEST was named curate of St. Martin's church, in the same city of Renaix. There also his zeal for the welfare of his fellowmen, instinctive zeal that religion increased, shown again by the founding of a school for poor orphans. It still exists.

In 1803 he was transferred to the parish church in Lovendegem, a nice village near GHENT and, always egged on by his thirst for charity, he laid the foundation stone of that immense, admirable institution of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, whose accomplishments are so glorious, but whose beginnings were so humble and so obscure.

During the last years of his life, Mr. TRIEST, through humility or through his desire to make Providence admired and lauded, liked to recall the souvenir of that decisive era, and talk with tears in his eyes of God's immense bounties; God who had deigned to look upon him and encourage his dedication by too rapid and dazzling successes so as to clearly show that God's hand was at work.

He spoke of having rented a small room and, helped by two pious girls (one of whom is still living and is the most ancient Sister of the community), he went about teaching children; and very soon a charitable person gave him a small amount of money that enabled him to increase the material and also the staff to ten persons.

The beneficent man, whose life we are sketching, with the intimation of his beautiful vocation, dedicated himself fully to the important task he had initiated although he admitted, later on, he had no inkling of the future development and results of his initiative.

At first he had thought of affiliating his community to the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, of France; what confirmed him to do so was the fact that the French government had just approved that useful congregation. He proposed to the members of his institution to solicit their affiliation by presenting a request to Mgr. Fallot de Beaumont, bishop of Ghent; they complied. The prelate who had always shown himself prone to second the charitable Triest's zeal, immediately went to Lovendegem on receiving the request. He was so greatly pleased by Mr. Triest's wisdom and the order reigning in the budding institution that he promised to write to Paris immediately and to neglect no means of obtaining what he requested. But, not withstanding his powerful intervention, he did not meet with success. On the 13th of February 1805, there was a refusal to recognize the Lovendegem house as affiliated to St. Vincent de Paul's congregation, particularly because of the language difference.

TRIEST relied too much upon Providence to be disheartened by the initial setbacks. To the contrary, he understood that the dependence on or the affiliation to the French congregation would have hindered the free flight of his zeal and the development of his institution. He therefore decided to maintain his independence and began to draft rules or constitutions for his community.

He had made a thorough study of different orders, compared them to one another; he took from them what he deemed best, added some of his own thoughts, striking by their prudence and wisdom, witnesses of his knowledge of the human heart and of the internal life of convents. He arose at three every morning, sometimes earlier, to teach the rules to the sisters and to support them by his example.

Mgr. de Beaumont had sized up Mr. TRIEST; he appreciated him at his real value, looked for ways and means of giving him the opportunity of exercising his zeal on a wider scale. The disastrous experience that the French revolution had inflicted on Belgium, had deprive it of all its pious welfare establishments. The wise prelate thought of bringing TRIEST to the city of GHENT. He talked it over with Mr. Faipoult, prefect of the Escaut department, and to Mr. Dellafaille, mayor of Ghent, persuading them of the need of such an establishment and asked them to accompany him to Lovendegem. To see that institution, small as it was but well organized, was to admire it; meeting with Mr. Triest was to recognize an outstanding person. So, a little later, he was invited by the ecclesial and civic authorities to settle down in Ghent, in the old Terhagen abbey that, since the revolution, had been sold to a manufacturer, but had remained unoccupied. Triest accepted the offer, went to Ghent on the 30th of July 1805, but with so little belongings that he and the six sisters were obliged, for a while, to sleep on chairs or on straw mattresses. One sister was taken ill because of weariness and work and a generous neighbor brought in a bed on which she could rest and recuperate.

However, Mr. Triest, in order to give his establishment importance and stability, felt that it was essential to obtain two things: the approval of the government and the ownership of the abbey. He therefore went to Paris, in the spring of 1806, with letters of recommendation from Mgr. de Beaumont and Mr. Faipoult. There,

Mr. Triest was happy to hear from his Eminence Cardinal Capara himself, legate of His Holiness, that the Sovereign Pontiff highly approved the institute of the Sisters of Charity and that, as for him, he would use all h is influence to obtain the French government's approval. Mr. Triest also came into contact with the vicar-general of the great chaplaincy of the empire, who received him with distinction and kindness and promised him to intercede by the emperor. All in all, the powerful recommendations were successful and had a happy outcome; the emperor, by a decree dated June 25, 1806, approved and authorized the new institute founded in Ghent under the name Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary. After that first success, Mr. Triest returned to Ghent, convinced that a second triumph was inevitable. In fact, an imperial decree, dated September 18, 1806, conceded gratuitously to the Sisters of Charity the Terhagen abbey. The mother house is now located there.

It is truly inconceivable how one man alone could do what Mr. Triest accomplished, how he could cope alone with all the occupations required by such difficult beginnings. He organized and kept an eye on everything; he directed and formed the Sisters; he was always close to the patients, offering them not only religious consolations, but caring for them himself, making up their bed and dressing their wounds. He even had set up his quarters near the hospital of the incurable, and, during the night, hearing a patient's complaint, he would arise, interrupting his few hours of needed sleep, and give solace to the sufferer. It was especially when one of his sisters became ill, because of overwork, that he encouraged by his presence and his words of consolation the sister who, with him, dedicated all her time to relieve the sufferings of the forlorn. Even at night he stood up with the martyrs of charity.

It is far from the truth to say that Mr. Triest was not put to the test by the Lord and that he did not come up against great trials in his new Ghent administration. He had received a free gift of the Terhagen property from the emperor, but the building, completely dilapidated by the revolution, required major repairs; there was a great lack of furniture and the new director could rely only on his charity and patience and that of his generous sisters. Happily, and this is also a disposition of Providence, the two dignitaries of the province, Mgr. de Beaumont and Mr. Faipoult, were able to fathom the noble sentiments and deep thoughts of Mr. Triest and did all they could to put at his disposal the resources of their position. Mgr. de Beaumont, as witnessed by the letters he wrote and that are conserved in our Canon's archives, loved him as a brother, often visiting alone as an individual the new establishments, encouraging the director in his many difficulties. Even when he was in Paris and at Plaisance, that worthy prelate kept up, with Mr. Triest, an active correspondence, remarkable by heartfelt effusions and tokens of confidence that leave no doubt about their mutual honorable sympathy and charity. Mr. Faipoult, on his part, requested government subsidies for Mr. Triest's institute, or made advances of funds that would come due for the poor. Letters that are conserved; witness to what he thought of the pious director and what interest he had in his establishment. He often said that he followed its progress with pleasure and always seconded it with zeal. Notwithstanding his numerous occupations, he wrote to Mr. Triest: Come when it pleases you; I always will have the time to confer with you on the good works to be done. One person, not so highly placed but as zealous as those of whom we have spoken, was father Linus, guardian of the Capuchin order and originally from northern Brabant. That worthy priest, expelled from his retreat by the revolution, having decided to consecrate his life to charitable works, was most happy to be able to help Canon Triest that he loved and esteemed greatly. You could see him from morning till night going about the most diverse and humble tasks, making himself useful everywhere and contributing mightily to the success of the new Bolstered by the' advice and help of those three worthy benefactors, and overcoming the obstacles that God had not opposed, doubtless to put him to the test, Mr. Triest did not wait long to see his institution prosper. His health, that had altered by vigils, fatigues and anxieties concerning the future of his establishment, improved little by little. His sisters also found new courage in their success because they considered the outcome as Providence's approval.

In 1806, Mr. Triest was named superior general of the community by Mgr. de Beaumont and, in 1807, honorary Canon of St. Bavon's cathedral. Mr. Triest soon felt the need to extend his beneficence to both sexes of all ages and~founded, under St. Vincent de Paul's patronage, the Brothers of Charity, with the purpose of serving those who were ill and the mental patients, of instructing the deaf, the poor and the orphans.

The origin of the Brothers was still more humble than that of the Sisters, and their beginnings less consoling to the heart of Mr. Triest. The hospice for elderly men that, since 1788, had been united to that of elderly women, at St. Anthony's convent, at the Lieve wharf, was detached and transferred to the Byloke on September 1st 1806. There were then one hundred old men who, tended by mercenaries without an authority as without dedication, obeyed no more and indulged with impunity in all kinds of disorders. There were numerous abuses and the hospice commission felt it was time to put a stop to it all and change the entire direction of the establishment. Mr. Triest, whose reputation was growing and who justified it by his success at the Terhagen abbey, was asked to take over the administration. He had no illusion concerning the difficulty of the task and what it would cost him to reform the behavior of the bullheaded old men. Nevertheless, his zeal won him over. Therefore, Mr. Triest accompanied by Mr. Faipoult and Mr. Dellafaille, installed three men, the 28th of December 1807, in view of setting up the foundation of the community of the Brothers of Charity.

However, as the young men required for such a task were extremely rare because of conscription during the war, Mr. Triest foresaw the obstacles he would encounter from those who should be his instruments and deemed it advisable to make only a tentative attempt. What he had foreseen came true; on the one hand, the old men, entrenched in their bad habits, revolted against the reformers of abuses; on the other hand, the men Triest had associated to his charitable enterprise pleased him very little. After fruitless efforts to bring about some improvement in their behavior and making it acceptable, he gave up and saw no other issue than to begin all over again. It was radical but that is what he did.

It was November the 7th 1810 that Mr. Triest truly founded the community of the Brothers of Charity; he gave them the same rule as the Sisters, with a few modifications, and that adapted rule was approved by Mgr. de Broglie, bishop of Ghent, on the 26th of November 1810.

In 1816 Canon Triest traveled to Rome to request from the Holy See the approval of his community and of its constitutions. The Sovereign Pontiff, Pius the VIIth, who had a special affection for Belgium and its clergy, welcomed most kindly and with honors the priest who represented them so honorably. He hastened to sanction the generous enterprise of the Ghent canon, and approved the Sisters' constitutions by a brief dated September the 9th 1816. It was a sweet consolation for Mr. Triest's heart and, for his institution, a new guarantee of stability.

The civil authorities themselves could not remain insensitive to so much charity. King William, although a Protestant and feeling very little sympathy for the Belgian clergy, named Triest, in 1818, Knight of the Order of the Belgian Lion and, some time later, sent him a bible of Sacy as: royal gift. That mark of esteem for the founder and superior of the Sisters' community was perhaps intended to cover the shocking pesterings he was later on to inflict upon the Sisters' institutions in different cities of the land.

It was in 1812 that Mr. Triest founded, in Ghent, the Dames of maternal charity, to care for pregnant women belonging to the lower class of citizens.

Two religious communities, the Black Sisters and the Spinners, visited the sick women of the city; but there was no like institution for men. Mr. Triest was called upon once again to fill in the gap. In 1825, he founded, in Ghent, the Brothers of St. John of God, who tended the sick at home as nurses.

In 1830, to reward Mr. Triest for his high virtues and eminent services, Mgr. Van de Velde named him titular canon of St. Bavon. In 1834, their Majesties the King and Queen of the Belgians, while visiting the city, could not forgo the pleasure of admiring the Sisters of Charity's institution and of meeting with the respectable and most worthy priest, that Belgium an other countries called the Apostle of humanity, Providence of the poor, Vincent de Paul of Belgium. The King, to manifest his satisfaction and as a token of his august sympathy, handed him personally the cross of the Knights of the Leopold Order. It was around that same time that a foreign society, that of Montyon and Franklin, basing their judgment upon the acts of kindness as those of the venerable priest Triest, the love and the blessings of the people knowing no frontiers, awarded him the medal of honor. There was, also, a very interesting article written by professor Voisin of Ghent, in the Biographies of men useful to their country.

Mr. Triest, who was far from relishing those public homages rendered him, felt a deep aversion and considered them a painful

chore. It was only after consultation with his superiors; "and to allow the homage to the religion of which he was the minister, that he consented to receive the medals of honor presented with great solemnity.

In 1835 our respectable canon, whose age could not hamper his zeal, founded the institution of the Sisters of the Childhood of Jesus, to care for foundlings and sick children under ten years of age. But the grand dream of that good man, the dream that circumstances made possible, was a refuge for priests, old, poor and deprived of resources.

He, whose arms of immense charity had embraced all the unfortunate, no matter of what rank, sex or age, regretted and was pained to see priests, who often had given their own resources and even their health to help solace the sufferings of others, now dying in need and infirmities. Our worthy bishop named a commission to realize the project and fill in the void still existing in canon TRIEST's vast charitable structure.

On several occasions canon TRIEST had suffered from calculus or stones; however, for some time he did not feel their dangerous inconveniences. Everything seemed to foreshadow that the septuagenarian, enjoying excellent health, would live on for a long time for the consolation of the miserable. But God, whose eternal designs so often run counter to men's human previsions, had decided otherwise. Since two days, Mr. Triest had complained about the difficulty to breathe, and of the weight of the atmosphere that choked him. On Friday, June 17, after dinner, while taking a walk in the garden, he felt badly. He was helped to his room, stricken by a sudden oppression of the lungs and came two fingers away from death. He was immediately given the last sacraments without any ceremonies. The doctors drew blood several times and, happily, the second crisis, that had been so feared because the patient could not withstand it, did not happen.

The news of the serious illness of the man that everybody so justly revered caused consternation in all hearts. However, the blood drawings produced their effects; the sick man waxed increasingly better. The following Sunday imminent danger had passed on and Mr. Triest walked in his apartments. That exercise harmed him, perhaps because he took cold, and the following day he suffered an inflammation of the lungs; it increased rapidly and lead him onto his death.

But let us stop for a moment; he whose life had been so beautiful, so useful, so deserving, must still serve as an example to all by the holiness of his last moments. We often saw him at the deathbed of those who suffered or were dying. Too often one has to turn one's eyes away from the deaths of the heroes of this world, so ridiculously vain or horribly cold. But here was a real hero, bringing along with him the blessings of all the people. Never having worked for worldly things, he had nothing to regret. Vigilant and faithful laborer, he went on to fetch his salary in God's bosom, who gives as rewards eternal glories and crowns that time cannot wilt.

Death is the echo of life; never has that truth found a more radiant and consoling confirmation. All the virtues of which, during his long and useful career, Mr. Triest gave so many proofs, shined forth more brilliantly at his hour of death: an admirable faithfulness in the fulfillment of his every task, a noble courage, inspired especially by a filial confidence in Providence that enabled him to realize wonders of charity, an exemplary surrender to God's will, a natural kindness, an insatiable desire to relieve the misfortunes of others and, above all, an angelic fervor: here is the sublime reunion of virtues that, after having edified men on earth, have gone on to rejoice the angels in heaven.

Notwithstanding the generous illusions of science and friendship, Mr. TRIEST felt he was coming to the end of his worldly journey. He often repeated it, not to stir up the hearts of the assistants or excite their sterile compassion, but in a way that expressed both his conviction and his desire. In fact, far from being troubled or afflicted by the thought of the imminent destruction of his being, he rejoiced; he knew it was for the good of his soul, shedding the envelope of his body and donning the brilliant robe of a glorious immortality. He yearned for the happy moment when he would come face to face with the One he had taken as model and of whom the Gospel said: pertransiit benefaciendo. Having known of life only its miseries and infirmities, how could Triest have been bound to it? Why fret for the numerous establishments that he left behind him: had not Providence initiated them all, had it not looked after them and ensured their success? That is why he oft repeated: Laetatus sum in his quea dicta sunt mihi: in domum Domini ibimus, or: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo. A few hours before his death, he assembled all the Sisters of the community and, in his dying voice, he asked their pardon for all the faults he may have been guilty of towards them; he exhorted them to always preserve peace and mutual understanding among them, to always fulfill with zeal their painful duties, to love the poor, in short, to remember that they were Sisters of Charity. Then he lifted up his hand to give them his last blessing. Them was pain, sorrow and tears in all those present as they heard him repeatedly lay his life into the hands of God: Fiat voluntas tua, Domine, and: Si adhuc populo tuo sum necessarius, no recuso laborem.

He had always had a special devotion to Jesus and the sacrament of the altar. Everyday, in his act of thanksgiving after the celebration of the Holy Mass, he was so fervent, his piety so rapturous that it often excited the admiration of those who saw him. Also, during his short illness, he urged hid coadjutor to offer the Holy Sacrifice for him, telling him that he would be united in intention with him. On St. Louis of Gonzaga's feast-day, in spite of the fatigues of his illness, he stood up, dressed and received the Lord kneeling down, the Lord he had always loved so tenderly, the Lord who makes the passage of life to death so sweet. Another commendable devotion, a favorite one for Mr. TRIEST, was for the Blessed Virgin. During his whole life, he always recommended it to his Sisters and to all those he directed; it was also that devotion that gave him most confidence and consolation on his deathbed. He often sent someone to tell the Sisters and the deaf-mute to ardently pray the Holy Mother of God for the fulfillment of God's will to the very end.

Finally, the moment so awaited had arrived. In all serenity and all the calm that come from a pure conscience and faith in God's merciful bounty, he repeated the sacred texts: In te, Domine speravi - Ecce quem serrum tuum, Domine. He listened to and followed with great piety the prayers recited by the priest for him. Thinking again of the poor and the forlorn that he had so loved, and that he recommended tenderly to those who would come after him, he murmured Date et dabitur vobis, when his soul took its quiet leave for heaven to enjoy the eternal fruits of his charity and dedication.

He died on the 24th of June 1836, at half past twelve; he remained exposed to public veneration for two days and was buried, as he wished it, in Lovendegem, in a tomb built for that purpose in the Sisters' community cemetery. The 29th of June, the feast-day of St. Peter, his patron, he was to celebrate his jubilee of 50 years of priesthood. Everything was ready, but death thwarted the project and transformed the festivity into mourning.

In his private life Mr. Triest was always a man of order, the same regularity that so eminently distinguished the communities he directed. He arose early in the morning. When he was at home he never missed reading a few chapters of the Scripture, after his prayers and pious meditation. His days were always taken up with

work. His activity is surely one of his least questionable qualities. Like the roman emperor, but more justly so, he could say every evening upon retiring: Today, I helped someone who was suffering, I did something good, I did not lose my day. However, after having worked such a full day, often late in the night, he did not go to bed before reciting his rosary. During his last illness, he acknowledged never having neglected that pious practice one single day in fifty years.

The virtues and administrative know-how of the generous old man were so universally recognized and appreciated that he was the advocate, the counselor of all the other welfare institutions of the country and elsewhere, because they came to him from afar. When Mr. de Beaumont was bishop of Plaisance, he built an institution modeled on those of Mr. TRIEST and according to his counsels.

The bishop of Metz wrote a great number of letters to the man whose name had become European, to request his advice; he also founded an institution similar to that of the Sisters of Charity. From all the cities of Belgium, there came requests for help from that man of good works: when creating or reforming an establishment, men called for Brothers or Sisters of Triest's communities because their intervention was a guarantee of success and duration.

In extraordinary circumstances, such as converting a capuchin's church into a military hospital, in 1809, or when cholera became rampant, the regency of Ghent turned to the Sisters of Charity. Feeling that their zeal grew with the danger, the Sisters found time to go into the city, although their own institutions were overflowing with sick and dying patients. The community was awarded the governmental medal for its magnificent contribution. The episcopal body of Belgium, appreciative of his immense zeal and extraordinary qualities, kept in close and friendly relations with the venerable canon, because his institutions had spread over all the dioceses the beneficence of their charity. Mr. TRIEST had a very sharp eye: he could say offhand if an establishment would succeed and he was seldom faulted in his judgment. If only his name was mentioned or his opinion expressed in a meeting, it was generally enough to carry the day. Especially in Ghent, his credit was extraordinary in the realm of good works; he was a member of the administration of prisons, of Mont-de-Piété, of the welfare work-shop, of the central cholera commission, of the commission of civic hospices. In this latter case, he was especially entrusted with the welfare of foundlings.

It recalls a trait of his life too nice to be overlooked. Those foundlings were sent to the countryside to nurse and canon Triest often went, disguised as a peasant, to make sure that they were well treated.

A general characteristic that reveals the very heart of his personality and that explains so well the great number of institutions he founded, is his unlimited confidence in Providence. When he drafted his plans and calculations for the founding of a new institution, and when people spoke of money, their main concern, it seemed not to disturb or upset him in the least. He was known to have begun an institution without a pence and, always, there came along large sums of money for that depository of public charity.

Mr. Triest was, without any doubt whatever, a superior man: broad views, daring in execution, particularly perspicacious in appreciating those who could help him. Everything about him spelled out a genius of first order, forthcoming from two great sources: love of God and love of neighbor. Those who were lucky enough to be intimate with him can testify to the kindness of his heart, the cheerfulness of his character, the sincerity of his friendship and the solidity of his devotion.

To give an idea of the zeal and activity of that man, powerfully seconded by the generous magnificence of the charitable families of Belgium, it would be enough to mention the number and variety of establishments he founded.