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The Second Sex and the First Estate: The Sisters of St-André between the Bishop of Tournai and Rome, 1850–1886
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 July 2008
Abstract
In 1855 the sisters of St André in Tournai (Belgium) openly revolted against their bishop by sending a delegation to the pope. It was the high point of a conflict that had been simmering since 1850, and would continue to reverberate until 1886. This case study illustrates the religious, social and gender fault-lines opened by modernity between authoritarian bishops and a new generation of self-conscious religious women active in society. The field of tension provided Vatican diplomacy with the opportunity for an unprecedented affirmation of its mediating role. The affair of St André was one of the first occasions on which the Curia was directly confronted with ultramontane feminism, and it neatly defines the margins within which the Holy See was hammering out a matrix for the Romanisation and ‘standardisation’ of religious women. At the price of ‘following the beaten track’ to Rome, the second sex could sufficiently escape the grip of the first estate to operate a silent revolution in education, charity and devotion during the nineteenth century.
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References
1 ‘Procès-verbal’ of the vicars-general of the diocese of Tournai, n.d., ASV, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886, ‘Tournai’.
2 Ibid
3 ASV, NdB; SdS, rubrica 284; SdS, Spoglio Pio ix; Archivio particolare Pio ix; Ep. ad Princ.
4 Naturally, an article cannot hope to be exhaustive in discussing an affair of this scope. A full treatment must await the study of the congregation's history being prepared by the Revd Sr Marie-Thérèse Lacroix, rsa.
5 ‘Cenni storici’, included in E. Gonella to G. Antonelli, 6 Nov. 1854: SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’; Les Religieuses de Saint-André du XIIIe au XXe siècle, Lille 1908, 2–92.
6 Copy of the will, 9 Dec. 1820, NdB 23.
7 Jean-Ignace Scherpereel to Gonella, 20 Sept. 1854, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’. In 1854 there were 35 Dames, 8 novices and 15 lay sisters.
8 V. Viaene, Belgium and the Holy See from Gregory XVI to Pius IX (1831–1859): Catholic revival, society and politics in 19th-century Europe, Leuven–Rome 2001, 171ff. (with further references). The quantitative data, in particular, rely on A. Tihon, ‘Les Religieuses en Belgique du xviie au xxe siècle: approche statistique’, Revue belge d'histoire contemporaine vii (1976), 1–54. There was considerable similarity to, and close interaction with, developments in neighbouring France: C. Langlois, Le Catholicisme au feminin: les congrégations françaises à supérieure générale au XIXe siècle, Paris 1984; R. Gibson, A social history of French Catholicism, 1789–1914, London 1989, 105ff. A good comparative introduction to the historiography on religious congregations is J. De Maeyer, S. Leplae and J. Schmiedl (eds), Religious institutes in western Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries: historiography, research and legal position, Leuven 2004.
9 ‘Cenni storici’, in G.-J. Labis to Gonella, 18 Oct. 1854, NdB 24.7; Les Religieuses de Saint-André, 96–7.
10 Lacroix, M.-T., ‘L'Influence ignatienne sur les constitutions des soeurs de Saint-André’, Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique lxxxviii (1990), 88–107Google Scholar.
11 Scherpereel to Gonella, 20 Sept. 1854, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
12 There is a list of members dating from 20 Nov. 1847, ibid Much information may also be gleaned from Les Religieuses de Saint-André.
13 H. Haag, Les Droits de la cité: les catholiques démocrates et la défense de nos franchises communales (1833–1836), Brussels 1946. More generally see Viaene, Belgium and the Holy See, 64–99.
14 B. Dumortier to Antonelli, 5 Jan. 1865, in Catholicisme et politique: documents inédits (1832–1909), ed. A. Simon, Wetteren 1955, 126.
15 Gonella to Antonelli, 15 Oct. 1854, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
16 Antonelli to Gonella, 5 May 1855, ibid
17 Scherpereel to Gonella, 20 Sept. 1854, ibid
18 Other, less egregious, examples are to be found in P. Wynants, ‘Le Gouvernement des instituts féminins de vie active au 19e siècle en Belgique’, in L. Courtois (ed.), Femmes et pouvoirs: flux et reflux de l'émancipation féminine depuis un siècle, Louvain-la-Neuve–Paris 1992, 90–4, and in J. Art, Kerkelijke structuur en pastorale werking in het bisdom Gent tussen 1830 en 1914, Kortrijk 1977. For French parallels, notably disputes about the founding, see Langlois, Catholicisme au féminin, 163ff.
19 Labis to Gonella, 26 May 1855, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
20 ‘Cenni storici’, ibid
21 Vicar-general Jean-Baptiste Ponceau to Gonella, 13 Oct. 1854, ibid
22 Anonymous letter, n.d. [1850], NdB 24.7.
23 Scherpereel to Gonella, 20 Sept. 1854, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
24 Ibid In the course of his inquiry Scherpereel talked to all the sisters and summarised their complaints; memo of the governing council of the convent included with Henriette De Sauw (mother superior) to Labis, 26 Feb. 1854, ibid; memo of the governing council of the convent included with De Sauw to L. Boeteman, 13 Mar. 1854, from which the quotes are taken, NdB 24.5. The community's concerns as reflected in the archival documents dovetail with the more general picture emerging from the literature. On the tendency towards conventualisation and on active congregations as playing-grounds for daughters from the bourgeoisie see Langlois, Catholicisme au féminin, 85ff., 284, 637–8. On the convent as a sanctuary of female sociability see the perceptive comments in Gibson, Social history, 117–18, and O. Arnold, Le Corps et l'âme: la vie des religieuses au XIXe siècle, Paris 1984, 37–161.
25 ‘Cenni storici’.
26 Raffaele Fornari to Gonella, 19 Oct. 1850, NdB 24.7. Fornari suspected the Belgian episcopate of, among other things, ‘febronian’ tendencies: Viaene, Belgium and the Holy See, passim.
27 T. de Montpellier to Gonella, 7 Dec. 1850, NdB 24.7. From the start, the aim of the visitation was to restore obedience to the bishop: Gonella to de Montpellier, 6 Nov. 1850, ibid
28 Scherpereel to Gonella, 20 Sept. 1854, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
29 ‘Comte de … ’ to Antonelli, 21 Aug. 1855, ibid
30 Anonymous letter from Ghent, 12 Feb. 1854, ibid
31 Mother Superior De Sauw, her assistant Léocadie Jouret and Mistress of Novices Sophie Devoldre, draft letter to Gonella, 17 Feb. 1854, signed by 23 out of 35 Dames, ibid
32 Scherpereel to Gonella, 20 Sept. 1854, ibid
33 Superior and council, supplication to Gonella, 11 Apr. 1854, NdB 23.
34 Scherpereel to Gonella, 20 Sept. 1854, and ‘Comte de … ’ to Antonelli, 21 Aug. 1855. SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
35 Dame Joséphine to Gonella, 10 Aug. 1854, NdB 23.
36 ‘Cenni storici’.
37 Ibid; Scherpereel to Gonella, 20 Oct. 1854, NdB 24.7. Without being sexual, the physical intimacy and tenderness between the two were charged with romantic innuendo.
38 ‘Cenni storici’; de Montpellier to Gonella, 25 May 1854, NdB 24.5. According to this last letter, Joséphine's revenue accruing to St-André was over 20,000 Fr. a year (since 1844).
39 Countess de Robiano to Boeteman, 27 Mar., 12, 19 May 1854, ibid
40 Dame Joséphine to Gonella, 10 Aug. 1854, ibid 23.
41 Sr Marie-Jo to Labis, n.d., ibid (original spelling).
42 ‘Cenni storici’.
43 ‘[J]’ai pensé qu'il était utile de tenir [Marie-Jo] dans la dépendance au moyen de cette resource, et de nous assurer ainsi de sa discrétion d'une manière efficace': Scherpereel to Gonella, 12 Feb. 1855, NdB 24.5. Marie-Jo received 400 Fr. a year for the rest of her life, allowing her to live modestly.
44 de Montpellier to Gonella, 5 Jan. 1855, ibid She would leave St-André in April, a week after the departure of the delegation for Rome. She became a nun in Liège.
45 Labis to Gonella, 24 July 1854, quoted, ibid 24.7, and 19 Aug. 1854, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
46 Gonella to Antonelli, 15 Oct. 1854, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
47 Labis to Pius ix, 15 Apr. 1855, ASV, Ep. ad Princ., Positiones et Minutae 26.
48 Gonella to Antonelli, 6 Nov. 1854, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
49 Boeteman to Gonella, 29 Jan. 1855, NdB 24.5.
50 Antonelli to Gonella, 2 Dec. 1854, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
51 Gonella to Antonelli, 6 June 1855, ibid; Devoldre, report, n.d., NdB 24.6.
52 See her passport (SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’) of November 1857 for her physical appearance: ‘auburn hair, blue eyes, high forehead, aquiline nose … elongated face … 1m53’.
53 Dame Joséphine to Gonella, 10 Aug. 1854, NdB, 23. In a later report Gonella considered the ‘blind and unlimited confidence’ in Sophie ‘up to the point of fanaticism’, the result of ‘religious hallucination and exaltation’: Gonella to G. della Genga, 2 May 1856, ibid 24.6.
54 The document is dated 26 Mar. 1855: SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
55 Les Religieuses de Saint-André, 129.
56 Devoldre, report for the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, 4 Aug. 1886, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
57 Boeteman to Gonella, 29 Jan. 1855, NdB 24.5.
58 See, in addition to the warrant of the sisters referred to in n. 54 above, Devoldre to Pius ix, 28 July 1855, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
59 Devoldre to sisters of St-André, 30 Apr. 1855, ibid The quotation is from a later letter: n.d. [1856], NdB 24.6.
60 Ludovic de Robiano would have written to Merode: Boeteman to Gonella, 2 Nov. 1854, ibid 24.5. The Robianos had been closely involved in a secret charmed circle led by Xavier's father and Ludovic's father-in-law, which may be considered as one of the cradles of the Catholic revival in Belgium: Viaene, Belgium and the Holy See, 40ff. On Merode's strong support see also the letters of Mgr Félix de Neckere, rector of the Belgian church in Rome, in Correspondance de Mgr. F. de Neckere recteur de San Giuliano à Rome de 1851 à 1903, ed. N. Huyghebaert and R. Aubert, Louvain-la-Neuve 2001, i. 164–8.
61 Devoldre to sisters of St-André, 24 June 1855, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
62 Devoldre to sisters of St-André, 30 Apr. 1855, ibid
63 ‘Aperçu général des Constitutions’, ibid Unless indicated otherwise, all quotations in this paragraph come from this document. The paragraph is largely based on the ‘Aperçu’, but complements it with information drawn from other sources about Sophie's ideas.
64 Devoldre, report, n.d. [1855], NdB 24.6; Devoldre to Mgr Gabriele Boccali, 7 June 1881, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’. The idea is also present in the ‘Aperçu’ (as in other memos by Sophie or the sisters), where it is said that God leads man and woman ‘freely’ to their end, ‘without doing violence to their nature’.
65 Devoldre to sisters of St-André, n.d. [1856], SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
66 Léonie Bossu to ‘Révérend Père’ (a Jesuit), 8 July 1858, NdB 23. Bossu was one of the three novices who were in Rome with Sophie between 1856 and 1858. In this letter she summarises what Sophie told her. The visions concerned the constitutions, the future of the institute in different countries, the future of these nations and their kings. The information provided by Bossu tallies with a letter written by Sophie herself in which she expressed the belief that her institute would be ‘le dernier jusqu'à la fin des siècles’: Devoldre to Dame Eugénie, 16 Aug. 1855, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., Tournai ‘1886’.
67 Devoldre to Mgr Xavier de Merode, 15 Nov. 1855, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’; Joseph Vanderwarden to Gonella, 10 Mar. 1856, NdB 24.7.
68 Bossu to ‘Révd Père’, 8 July 1858, NdB 23.
69 Without going into the ultramontane connection, Yvonne Turin underscored the feminist dimension of women's congregations in Femmes et religieuses au XIXe siècle: le féminisme ‘en religion’, Paris 1989. Parallels with Sophie's ideas are also to be found in R. Rogers, From the salon to the schoolroom: educating bourgeois girls in nineteenth-century France, Philadelphia 2005.
70 Labis to Antonelli, 15 Apr. 1855, and L. Delebecque, bishop of Ghent, to Antonelli, 19 May 1855, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
71 della Genga to Gonella, 4 June 1855, NdB 3.
72 Opinion of Carlo Capelli, 15 May 1855, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’. For Capelli see p. 464 below.
73 Devoldre to sisters of St-André, n.d. [1855], and Dom F. Regis to Devoldre, 28 Sept. 1859, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’; note on the affair by a Jesuit, n.d. [Aug. 1855] (Passaglia, in particular, would have supported her), NdB 24; de Neckere letters in Correspondance de Mgr de Neckere, i. 225, 270.
74 Gonella to Antonelli, 11 Apr. 1855, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’; Devoldre, report, n.d. [1855], NdB 24.6.
75 Gonella to Antonelli, 29 Nov. 1856, SdS, Spoglio Pio ix 15.
76 della Genga to Gonella, 28 Aug. 1855, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
77 Fr Séraphin (an Italian Passionist who established his congregation in Tournai) to Gonella, 17 June 1855, NdB 24.5.
78 Devoldre to sisters of St-André, 26 July 1855, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
79 Devoldre to sisters of St.-André, Aug. 1855, ibid According to her banker in Rome, the Belgian Terwagne, she was ‘une puissance à Rome’ since she had 150,000 Fr. on her account. The sisters who donated were Eugénie and Isabelle Leman. Sophie's parents were impoverished bourgeois from the small town of Mouscron: note on the affair by a Jesuit, Aug. 1858, NdB 24. On the profile of the typical foundress see Langlois, Catholicisme au féminin, 168–9, 270ff.
80 See n. 77 above.
81 Gonella to della Genga, 15 Aug. 1855, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
82 The quotation and the details on the early career of Bizzarri are derived from the memoirs of Cardinal Aloisi Masella, who was at the time secretary to the nuncio in Naples: ASV, Instrumenta Miscellanea 8562, i. 1–12.
83 On its genesis see G. Martina, Pio IX (1851–1866), Rome 1986, 213ff. The best synthesis of the evolution of the Congregation's policy in the middle decades of the nineteenth century, although only illustrated with examples from Italy, is G. Rocca, Donne religiose: contributo a una storia della condizione femminile in Italia nei secoli XIX–XX, Rome 1992, 70–107. Also still valuable is the succinct overview by R. Aubert in H. Jedin (ed.), Die Kirche in der Gegenwart, I: Die Kirche zwischen Revolution und Restauration, Freiburg 1985, 650–6.
84 On them see M. Caffiero, Religione e modernità in Italia (secoli XVII–XIX), Pisa 2000, 113ff. Founded in the late seventeenth century, they may be considered precursors of the nineteenth-century congregations, but they do not seem to have ‘made school’ in Rome themselves.
85 In 1851 there were only two ‘foreign’ congregations of women, in 1862 six or seven, and in 1870 about a dozen: Annuario Pontificio.
86 A similar (but less problematic) case of ‘cultural transfer’ is discussed in O'Brien, S., ‘French nuns in 19th-century England’, Past and Present cliv (1997), 142–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
87 The votum was dated 15 June 1855. It was preceded by an earlier opinion of 15 May 1855: both SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’. For the misogynist undertone see some parallels in Rocca, Donne religiose, 81–2, 88, and esp. p. 91 (of particular interest, as it involves della Genga).
88 This charge, articulated in the first opinion of 15 May 1855, was typical of the Curia's long memory. On the ‘quietist’ controversy in Rome in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries see M. Caffiero, ‘Dall'esplosione mistica tardo-barocca all'apostolato sociale (1650–1850)’, in L. Scaraffia and G. Zarri (eds), Donne e fede: santità e vita religiosa in Italia, Rome 1994, 327ff.
89 ‘Rapporto sulla communità religiosa delle Dame di S. Andrea’, for the pope, n.d. [June 1855], SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
90 Comment by A. Bizzarri (presumably) on Gonella's report of 15 Aug. 1855, ibid
91 della Genga to Gonella, 23 July 1855 (NdB 3), and 28 Aug. 1855 ‘Riservata’, spelling out the reasons for the Roman decision (SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’). The official decree conferring the delegation was dated 15 Sept. 1855: SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’. Rome had previously asked Archbishop Engelbert Sterckx of Mechelen to mediate and bring Labis to his senses (della Genga to Sterckx, 4 June 1855, NdB 3), but this failed (internal report for the session of the Congregation of 28 Jan. 1858, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’; on the session see n. 122 below). The new escapades at Wez are reported in ‘Comte de … ’ to Antonelli, 21 Aug. 1855, and may well have influenced the final decision: SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
92 de Montpellier to Gonella, 6 Oct. 1855, NdB 24.5.
93 See de Neckere to J. B. Malou, bishop of Bruges, 25 Sept. 1855, Correspondance de Mgr de Neckere, i. 169–70.
94 For the audience of 2 Sept. there is only Sophie's version, in a letter to the sisters of the same day: ‘Mon enfant, dit-il, quelle quarantaine, vous êtes ici depuis le mois d'avril, il compta sur ses doigts le nombre de mois écoulés; il m'explique la bienveillance qu'il m'avait voué dès le principe, comment il avait dÛ se conduire, pourquoi il avait dÛ faire traîner etc. etc … Mais maintenant, fille de Dieu, vous êtes auprès du pape! Votre affaire si grande va être terminée dans peu de jours, mais il faut rester à Rome, il faut votre maison à Rome’: SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’. One recognises Pius' kindly paternal but condescending style with women. Nevertheless, in the light of the decision of 28 August, the last phrase, as reported here, is quite unlikely. What the pope may have said (or meant) was that they were welcome to stay a little longer, and that yes, of course, they would need a house in Rome one day [that is, when the congregation had grown].
95 ‘Ex audientia nov. 1855’, ibid The note for a papal audience, probably by Mgr Gaggiotti, under-secretary to the Congregation for Bishops and Regulars, reports the reply of the three sisters to the official reason given them that a new elite school was superfluous in Rome. They said that they planned to do work among the poor instead.
96 della Genga to Gonella, 28 Feb. 1856, NdB 24.6; three novices (Bossu, Coiffez and Heirman) to Gonella, ibid 23. Sophie and Chantal were swindled, buying the villa for twice its value.
97 Report for the session of the Congregation for Bishops and Regulars, 28 Jan. 1858, SCVR, Pos., Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
98 Ibid
100 See n. 97 above. See also the appeal of Sophie to the Congregation for Bishops and Regulars, March 1856, cited extensively in a ‘Recours définitif’ of 3 May 1857: SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’. She did not hide the underlying ideal of freedom: ‘depuis longtemps, je n'ai plus d'autre loi que celle de l'Evangile, et les engagements que j'ai voulu m'imposer librement’.
101 E. de Meester to Antonelli, 17 Apr. 1856, SdS 1880, rubr. 284, fasc. 2.
102 See de Neckere to Malou, 29 Oct. 1855, Correspondance de Mgr de Neckere, i. 172.
103 Anonymous memo, May 1856, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
104 Report for the session of the Congregation for Bishops and Regulars, 28 Jan. 1858, ibid; Antonelli to de Meester, 25 Apr. 1856, SdS 1880, rubr. 284, fasc. 2; Correspondance de Mgr de Neckere, i. 182.
105 Gonella to della Genga, 2 May 1856, NdB 24.6.
106 Supplication to Gonella, signed by almost all the Dames, 25 May 1856, ibid 23.
107 Gonella to C. Patrizi, 13 June 1856, ibid 24.6. Patrizi was on a mission to Paris and Gonella went to visit him.
108 della Genga to Gonella, 26 July, 14 June 1856, ibid
109 Gonella to Antonelli, 2 May 1856, 24 Jan. 1857; Antonelli to Gonella, 4 Feb. 1857, SdS 1880, rubr. 284 fasc. 2.
110 Bossu to ‘Révd Père’ (a Jesuit), 8 July 1858, NdB 23.
111 A copy of the revised rule is in SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’.
112 Fr Séraphin to Gonella, 1 July 1856, quoted here; F. Bossaert to C. Franckeville (the superior of the Belgian province), 27 Mar. 1857, NdB 23.
113 By the end of August 1855 de Merode had already distanced himself: Correspondance de Mgr de Neckere, i. 170.
114 Devoldre, instructions on the attitude to adopt towards the nuncio, n.d., NdB 24.6; correspondence in SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’. The expression quoted figures in a slightly revised version of her rule dating from March 1856, ibid
115 Growing uneasiness about Sophie's ‘orgueil’ are reflected in De Sauw to Bossaert, Mar. 1856, NdB 24.5. For examples of the authoritarianism of foundresses see Wynants, ‘Gouvernement’, 87–9, and Turin, Femmes et religieuses, 97ff.
116 Gonella harangue and the ‘cérémonial’ of the solemn occasion of 14 Apr. 1857, NdB 24.6. The nuncio really laboured on his speech, as several drafts illustrate. A pathetic declaration prepared in her defence by Sophie was not read.
117 Gonella to della Genga, 25 June 1857, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., Tournai ‘1886’.
119 Bishop of Terni to della Genga, 15, 19 Nov. 1857, ibid
120 de Neckere (who acted as agent for St-André in Rome), memo for the Congregation, n.d., ibid
121 Cf. de Neckere letter, Correspondance de Mgr de Neckere, i. 239.
122 The session of the Congregation took place on 28 Jan. 1858: A. Bizzarri, report in preparation, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., Tournai ‘1886’. There is no report of the session itself. The verdict was all the more a foregone conclusion as Bizzarri connived with de Neckere and the St-André lawyers.
123 F. Lasagni (one of St-André's two Roman lawyers) to Bizzarri, 23 Mar., 15 Apr. (quoted) 1858, ibid
124 Internal note of the Congregation, Apr. 1858, ibid; de Neckere to Jean-Baptiste Malou (bishop of Bruge), Théodore de Monpellier, Eustachio Gonella, François-Joseph Labis (nephew of Bishop Labis) and H. Desauw, Correspondance de Mgr de Neckere, i. 260–73.
126 Mme François to Dame Chantal (her daughter), 6 June 1858, Archivio particolare Pio ix, ogg. vari, 1408. Beernaert, of course, was later to become a famous Catholic statesman. Potentially, Sophie had a case on two grounds, based upon her mandate of 1855. The first was that part of the money had been given individually by sisters, rather than by the community (as Desauw privately admitted to Gonella, 18 Apr. 1857, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’). The second was that, apart from their real estate, the community only had legal existence under the guise of a société civile intended for commercial purposes, a subterfuge that the Belgian courts started to question at this time.
127 Mme François to Dame Chantal, 6 June 1858, Archivio particolare Pio ix, ogg. vari, 1408.
128 Note by a Jesuit on the affair, Aug. 1858, reporting a conversation between Rogier and the mother superior of the convent at Berlaimont, NdB 24.
130 Devoldre to Nuncio Cattani, 24 Aug. 1868, ibid 3.
132 Devoldre to Leo xiii, 15 Nov. 1886, ibid
133 See in particular the internal report reviewing the case, n.d. [1881], ibid
134 The following paragraph is based on Les Religieuses de Saint-André, unless referenced otherwise.
135 Gonella to Antonelli, 26 Oct. 1861, NdB 24.
136 Lucie was a novice from 1849 to 1851. She came into her own after Sophie had become mistress of novices in 1850: Les Religieuses de Saint-André, 131.
137 It was they who drafted and signed the last address from the community in support of Sophie on 31 Jan. 1857: NdB 23. Loyola, in particular, was a confidant of Sophie: see the 1856 letters in the file of the process before the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars in 1858, SCVR, Pos. Arch. Segr., 1886 ‘Tournai’. She was Odile Douterlungne, the niece of Bishop Labis. Her uncle was only reconciled with her on her deathbed: Les Religieuses de Saint-André, 122.
138 Les Religieuses de Saint-André, 195–6. A parallel evolution was analysed by P. Wynants, Les Soeurs de la Providence de Champion et leurs écoles, 1833–1914, Namur 1984.
139 Les Religieuses de Saint-André, 141–2, n. 2. On Mother Marie du Sacré Coeur see F. Mayeur, ‘Les Catholiques libéraux et l'éducation des femmes’, in J. Gadille (ed.), Les Catholiques libéraux au XIXe siècle, Grenoble 1974, 431ff.