In 1124 the bishop of Tournai gave the community its first rule. This rule approved of apostolic works, based on the charitable work of these men and women. The rule was approved by Pope Gregory lX in 1237.

In the 13th century, the influence of Cîteaux and of the spiritual renewal of the Cistercians was very strong in Flanders. Many Cistercian abbeys were founded, especially through the intermediary of the Countesses of Flanders, Jeanne and Marguerite of Constantinople. There were about fifty such monasteries, most of which were abbeys of nuns. At this period, there were strong bonds between the Counts of Flanders, Saint Bernard and the abbey of Clairvaux. This explains why the two Countesses wanted to foster Cistercian life in our region. Thanks to the bishop of Tournai, one of the most influential personages of the time, most of these abbeys were incorporated into the Order of Cîteaux or were under the authority of the abbot of Clairvaux.

In 1232, Jeanne of Constantinople decided to unite a Cistercian abbey to the hospital of Our Lady of Oudenaarde. She did the same thing with the hospital of Byloke in Ghent. She wanted join this way the monastic life of prayer with hospitality to the poor and care of the sick.

For different reasons, the abbey was not able to remain beside the hospital. After a year it was transferred to Ath. We have no idea why. There are several theories:

• the difficulty of reconciling active works with the contemplative life;
• perhaps the lack of solitude due to closeness to the town;
• perhaps for political reasons. On the other side of the Scheldt River, another nobleman had also begun building a Cistercian abbey for nuns. Perhaps he prevented the building of a new abbey in the vicinity of the first.

In spite of this departure, the community of Oudenaarde remained faithful to the Cistercian spirit. The Sisters kept the black and white religious habit, a life style that placed the accent on the liturgy, on the prayer of the Hours, reading the Word, and on community life and hospitality. In the archives, which were relatively rare at that time, several sources speak of "Hospital Sisters of the Cistercian Order at Oudenaarde." At the end of the 18th century, the name "Bernardine Sisters" began to be given to the Sisters in official documents. In the 1930s, the Superiors initiated their request for spiritual affiliation in the larger Cistercian family. In 1946, this spiritual bond was officially confirmed by the General Chapter meeting at Cîteaux on May 1^st, 1946. The Abbot General, Dom Dominic Nogues, communicated this decision of the General Chapter to us in a letter dated August 20, 1946.

2. Through the centuries

There has been no break all through our history, even when the number of sisters went down to twelve: eleven sisters and a Prioress. During the reign of the emperor Joseph ll, several abbeys and convents were closed. Only the communities of hospital sisters were allowed to continue, because of their Ausefulness to society. At the time of the French Revolution the few remaining sisters were obliged to leave. There was a time when there was only one religious left. Three times she was driven out of the hospital, and three times she came back and began again.

In 1932, the Congregation sent Sisters on a mission to Africa, especially to Rwanda. In 1983, the Rwandan and Belgian Sisters left for Chad. And since 1995, we have had a community of Bernardine Sisters in Burkina-Faso.

At present we are 204 sisters, 133 Belgian professed, 60 from Rwanda and one young professed from Chad. In Belgium we have one postulant, and in Rwanda five postulants and two novices. In the Flemish province we have ten communities, including one with Rwandan sisters in Brussels. There are seven communities in Rwanda, two in Chad and one in Burkina.

In the Flemish province, our activites are teaching, looking after the sick, pastoral care of the young, pastoral work in the parish, and helping the poor, the aged and foreigners.

In the Rwandan province the Sisters are committed to teaching, care of the sick, the advancement of women, agricultural projects, pastoral care of the young and fostering vocations.

3. Our Spiritual Search

In recent years, thanks to our bonds with the Cistercian family in Africa and in the Dutch-speaking region, and also thanks to the welcome we have felt, we are experiencing a renewal in the Congregation. All the sisters, especially the ones from Rwanda, have a twofold desire:

a) for a better understanding of Cistercian spirituality in general and of the spirituality of Saint Bernard in particular, in order to live it more intensely, and

b) for a clearer concept of our identity, our particular charism as Sisters who are both Bernardine and apostolic.

We spent a whole year preparing in our communities for our General Chapter, which was held in August 1999. We tried to meet this twofold desire. We met in our communities to study the theme: Towards a new millennium as apostolic religious within the great Cistercian family. First we read together several texts concerning Cistercian life and spirituality in general. We were touched by the radical nature of the lifestyle, especially by the life of silence, austerity and manual labour. We felt it was an appeal for us to seek how we could give more importance to these three Cistercian values in our apostolic life.

Secondly, we read a synthesis of spirituality, especially that of Saint Bernard. We asked ourselves: What significance does this spirituality have for our vocation, our community life and our apostolic commitment? We asked Brother Lode Van Hecke of Orval the same question. With his help we tried to express the essence of our religious life for today.

We emphasized three elements:

First element:

The essential thing in our life is to seek God who called us into life and created us in his image and likeness.

We seek God in silence and prayer, through revision of life and self-knowledge, through Lectio Divina and the liturgy.

We seek God in others, our sisters and all people, whoever they may be.

Second element:

We live "communion":
  • we live community life as a "school of charity";
  • we live communion in all humility;
  • we want to live communion by offering ourselves to the otherness of the other person;
  • we wish to live union in diversity as European and African sisters;
  • we choose to live communion beyond frontiers, in openness and complementarity.

Third element:

Our apostolic commitment: inspired by the spirituality of Saint Bernard and by the spirit of hospitality which is basic to our Congregation, we summed it up in these few words:

- We welcome the human person, the image of God.

- We want to welcome each person with deep respect and compassion.

- We want to welcome each one whoever he or she may be - to welcome, listen and make the other person feel accepted and loved, first by a human being and finally by God.

- Ours is to serve our God in others, to allow our love to grow and mature so that it can be useful, for the other person and for the kingdom of God among us.

We hope to continue our spiritual journey in the future. In Flanders our reflection on spirituality was felt to be an enrichment, giving a new impetus towards the future. This was so especially for our Rwandan sisters. We experienced it as a truly human spirituality, since it looks at the human being and corresponds to the aim and purpose of our human life. We found in it a new inspiration for our apostolic commitment. It is a joy for all of us to be Bernardine sisters in the great Cistercian family. And this is even more true for our Rwandan sisters because of what they have experienced in recent years. The deepening of this Cistercian spirituality gives them a new impetus toward the future, which has to be built up in a country that has been torn to pieces and is now faced with the difficulty of living out a program of reconciliation and peace.

(Conference of Mother Noëlla Ghijs,
 Prioress General of the Bernardines of Oudenaarde,
 to the General Chapters of the O.C.S.O. in 1999)

---

                          ocsoroma@ocso.org