Who were the Poor Clares?

The Order of Saint Clare was founded in 1212 by Saint Clare of Assisi, follower of Saint Francis of Assisi. Organised after the manner of Francis’ Order of the Friars Minor, the order follows a strict oath of poverty and service, devout of personal possession and living on alms. For this reason, the ordained sisters are often called the Poor Clares or Clarisses – “Arme Klaren” or “Arme Klarissen” in Dutch. As they were dressed in grey, they were also called the Grey Sisters – “Grauwzusters“.

1503: The Poor Clares settle in Brussels

Already after 1450, a group of laywomen settled in Brussels, living together under the Third Order of Saint Francis. It was only following a recommendation from the 4th Lord of Ayseau Willem Brant (?) and the bull of Pope Alexander VI dated 4 September 1501, that this group adopted the stricter regime of Clare of Assisi and became officially Poor Clares.

To guide them with this transition, five sisters from the Poor Clares Convent in Ghent arrived to serve as their directors. However, their founding came with several restrictions from the Chapter of the Collegiale kerk van Sint-Michiel en Sint-Goedele, in order to prevent an open conflict with the “Rich Clares“. The Rich Clares are another branch of the Order of Saint Clare that undertook a reform by Pope Urban IV in 1263, that freed them from the vows of poverty. Both branches openly oppose each other, and the Rich Clares have first settled in Brussels in 1343 close to the Hallepoort.

The restrictions on the Poor Clares included the prohibition of burying inhabitants from all the parishes in Brussels, the limitation of the number of alms-dependent sisters to twenty-seven and priests to four, that they could only acquire two houses next to their church, that they could only brew strong beer unless with special authorisation, and that both Poor and Rich Clares should never attack each other through the pulpit.

All these conditions were accepted by the representatives of the Klooster der Arme Klaren van Bethlehem, among whom was Theoderich von Münster (1435-1515), known also by his Dutch name Dirk Coelde van Munster, the guardian of the Franciscan Klooster van Boetendaal in Ukkel not far from Brussels. The fiery Franciscan friar originally from Osnabrück in Germany tried once to impoverish the Rich Clares. At the insistence of the city council, it was the duty of the mendicant Poor Clares sisters to pray that the plague of 1489-90 would not return.

A side note about this Dirk Coelde van Munster: When the plague broke out at Brussels in 1489, Coelde ministered to the dying victims. Before the end of the plague, more than thirty-two thousand had received the last rites from him. Somehow he seemed to be plague-resistant: Coelde died in Leuven at the advanced age of eighty!

The Poor Clares were subject to a very rigid discipline: they observed a strict regime, fasted permanently (i.e. abstention from meat), had no personal income or possession, and live on alms within a strict enclosure. The city frequently authorised them to collect alms in the city, or gave them relief consisting of grain, bread, beer or fish.

The Terrible Fire of 1619

During the Calvinist Republic of Brussels (1576-1585), the Poor Clares (as well as the Rich Clares) were expelled from their convents. The church was destroyed and they were told to return to their families. With the return of the Catholic Habsburg Rule in 1585, the Klooster der Arme Klaren van Bethlehem was re-established.

But this reconstruction did not last more than a few decades. In 1619, a terrible fire broke out in the convent and the sisters who survived huddled together in the garden or in the church, which surprisingly remained intact. The whole city rushed to the scene. It was said that the anti-Calvinist general Ambrogio Spinola, Marquess of Balbases and the Captain-General of the Army of the Royal Netherlands, had to be there to maintain order.

The convent was rebuilt the following year, with the general donation of 15,000 florins from the Countess of Berlaimont, Marguerite de Lalaing (1574-1650).

Around 1644, the Poor Clares wanted to erect a long wall to shield their property from the neighbouring Monastery of Augustinian friars (1620-1893) across the river,  along current-day Zwaluwenstraat (Rue des Hirondelles) to the River Zenne (under today’s Emile Jacqmain boulevard).

To cover the costs of this gender wall, they were allowed to make a collection in the city. But they only managed to get 600 florins, so the city magistrate granted them an additional 200 on 20 October 1644.

Venerated by Vondel

Part of the Muiderkring of Dutch-language Renaissance artists and writers, Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679) is considered the Father of Dutch literature.

In 1658, he wrote an exceptional poem “Maegdepalm” (Maidenpalm) for his niece Anna Bruyningh/Bruining who took the habit at the Klooster der Arme Klaren van Bethlehem in Brussels. Anna was the oldest daughter of Vondel’s sister Catharina. She would go on to become its abbess in 1662. Here is an excerpt:

‘k Hoor ze zingen aen den rey,
Op onendelijcke feesten,
‘t Nieuwe liet, op fluit, schalmey,
Harp, en snaer, en schuiftrompetten,
En bekranst met maeghdepalm,
Aen geduurige bancketten,
In sneeuwit gewaet, den galm
Van dien gouden tempel wecken;
Daer heur zon noch maen verlicht,
Geene schaduwen bedecken;
Maer Godts heilrijck aengezicht
Zalight zijn gekruiste bende.
Godt is ‘t Kloosterslot en ENDE.

I hear them singing in choir,
in never-ending feasts,
the new song, with flute, pipe,
harp, string and trumpets,
and crowned in virgin palm,
at the long-lasting banquets,
in snow-white robe, the chimes
from the golden temple melt;
There the sun and the moon light,
and no shadows cover;
But God’s holy face
Cheers his crossed group.
God is the convent lock and end.

The tragedy “Joannes de Boetgezant” (Joan the Atoning Congregation) and the “Lof-zang van Sinte Klara” (Song of Praise of Saint Clare) were also written for Anna.

Of Alder and Lime

The Klooster der Arme Klaren van Bethlehem extended along what is called today the Vander Elststraat (Vander Elst Street). To many historians of the past, this was the first street in Brussels that alluded to a family name ‘van der Elst‘, since the streetname was attested to already in the 14th century!

However, this is highly unlikely as the convention to name streets after people, especially important people, only came in the 19th century and was very much a French import.

According to Bram Vannieuwenhuyze, the name most likely meant “the alley (towards the direction) of the place where alders grow“. The first written record of the name is “streetken van der Elst“, where the t-suffix indicated a collective, a remnant of the period between Old Lower Frankish and Middle Lower Frankish around 1000 AD. The 1572 map also indicates a group of trees at the end of the alley just on the bank of the River Zenne. The earliest Latin translation of the street name also retained the final t, “vicus de Elst/vicus dictus de Helst“, giving a clue that the collective noun of alders was meant as a toponym. The street itself began very much a side street leading from the Lakenstraat – used to be called the ‘Rechte straat‘ (the ‘straight’ street) – towards the meander of the River Zenne, which today flows under the boulevard Emile Jacqmain.

There is another fun fact about this tiny street. On both sides of the Vander Elststraat, and before the establishment of the Poor Clares in 1503, the area used to be filled with lime kilns.

Since Roman times, lime was used in plaster, pottery, mortar and agriculture.

By way of the Zenne, limestone was brought into Brussels from the quarries of Diegem and Melsbroek, unloaded here and processed into lime in the kilns right by the bank of the river.

In the 15th century, the masons owned two of these kilns. But in 1415, at the request of the beguines from the Groot Begijnhof on the other side of the street, it was forbidden to build new ones in this place. Gradually, they all disappeared.

There was not much mention of the appearance of the Klooster der Arme Klaren van Bethlehem.

From the various maps, we can see that the community lived in a block of buildings bordering present-day Lakenstraat and Vander Elststraat. They did have a garden which extended all the way to the Zenne River.

All of the whole complex except the church had to be rebuilt after the fire in 1619. Today, the only remnant is a corner complex consisting of two two-storey wing surrounding a courtyard, between the Vander Elststraat and the Bloemenstraat.

While the facade along the Bloemenstraat looks neo-classical but the core remains 17th century, and the facade along the Vander Elststraat clearly dates from the 17th century. Two round arches, possibly from a projecting floor in the side facade, point to an even older, at least 16th-century origin. The current appearance of a neo-classical mansion is the result of alterations from the first half of the 19th century.

Divided and Sold

Through the 1782 Edict of Toleration, Habsburg Emperor Joseph II closed down virtually all the religious institutions throughout the empire.

On 21 April 1783, the Poor Clares were forced to leave the Klooster der Arme Klaren van Bethlehem, which was then turned into a military hospital.

In 1790 the sisters tried to return to their convent by staging a procession, and they succeeded. But six years later in 1796, they were once again expelled and they found a temporary refuge in the Augustinian convent Klooster van Berlaymont before they were again dispersed when the French invaded the Habsburg Low Countries.

The French-run authorities set up a saltpeter factory on the property, before it was bought by a citizen known as Wéry in 1803. Wéry knocked down many of the buildings of the former convent and laid three new streets: Rue des Hirondelles (Swallows Street), Rue des Chauves-souris (Bats Street), Rue des Bécassines (Snipes Street). Only the Rue des Hirondelles remains today. Legend has it that the street (foundation stone laid in 1806 by Brusssels mayor de Merode) was named after the swallows that used to gather in the gardens of the Poor Clares to undertake their yearly migration.

But that is not the end of the Poor Clares in Brussels. After Belgium’s independence, a new group was formed in 1843. But they had nothing to do with the former Klooster der Arme Klaren van Bethlehem.

Excavation campaign in 2004-2006

As described above, there is not much left of the former Klooster der Arme Klaren van Bethlehem, with exception of the building on the corner of Bloemenstraat and Vander Elststraat. Since 2001, the building was declared a protected monument.

In 2004-2006, an extensive excavation campaign was carried out on the former site of the Klooster der Arme Klaren van Bethlehem. Much was learnt about when and how the streets of Brussels was paved in the 15th century and with what material. In fact, these medieval streets still lay beneath the surface of the modern bitumen roads.

Sources:

Vannieuwenhuyze, B. (2011) “Brussel, de Ontwikkeling van een middeleeuwse stedelijke ruimte.” Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Henne, A. Wauters, A. (1845) “Histoire de la ville de Bruxelles. Volume I-III” Brussels: Librairie Encyclopédique de Périchon.
Rombaut, J-A. (1777) “Bruxelles illustrée, ou description chronologique et historique de cette ville.” Brussels: Chez Pauwels.
https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arme_Klaren_(Brussel)
https://monument.heritage.brussels/nl/buildings/32505
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_Clares
https://monument.heritage.brussels/nl/Brussel_Vijfhoek/Vander_Elststraat/10003163
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Coelde
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Coelde
https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/vond001dewe08_01/vond001dewe08_01_0213.php
https://ebru.be/Streets/bruxelles-1000-rue-vander-elst.html

1. Laboureur, J., Van der Baren, J., Harrewijn, J. (1695) “Bruxella Nobilissima Brabanti Civitasae” Bibliothèque Nationale de la France (image)
2. Unknown. (1490s) “Dietrich Coelde als Prediger, Holzschnitt in einer Ausgabe des Christenspiegels aus den 1490er Jahren” Wikimedia (image)