In 1664, the magistrate of the town of Diekirch, on behalf of the entire Bouigeoisie, requested letters patent for the creation of a Recollect convent. To this end he explained to the king: "that the peasants of our said city, likewise all the six and seven leagues of the surrounding neighborhood, are greatly deprived of the spiritual relief and assistance that one can hope for and that ordinarily derive from good religious, especially in times of illness or other adverse circumstances, seeing that there are no neighbors other than two leagues from here the Trinitarian monks at Wianden and at five o'clock those of the abbey of Echternach of the order of Saint Benedict, all of whom are accustomed not to leave their cloister except for the service of the latter; but of the others who according to their vocation devote themselves to the service of the public, there are none closer than those of Luxembourg." This account clearly characterizes the difference that distinguished the mendicant orders, and in particular the Friars Minor, from the ancient religious orders, from their origins until the turn of modern times.
In his picturesque language, the Reverend Father Iweins of the Friars Preachers also clarifies this difference:
"Until then, in the first quarter of the thirteenth century, there were monks and apostles in the Church, but these two halos did not shine on the same forehead."
"ment of their monasteries to visit men. If they tore themselves away from the sweetness of the contemplative life, like Saint Bernard, it was only for a very short time and they were eager to return to their cells."
"To create an institution capable of uniting the austere discipline of the cloister with the conquering activity of the apostolate," says Father Felix, explaining the intentions of Saint Dominic in founding his order, "to bring about the fusion of the monk and the apostle, to cast both into the same evangelical mold, but without absorbing the apostle into the monk and without erasing the monk in the apostle, to arm a new phalanx for the struggles of virtue—such was the design conceived by our apostle. To grasp the meeting point marked by "providence between a time and an institution, between a need "and a help, this was the genius, I should say to speak a "less human language and more worthy of him, this was the inspiration "of Dominic, because the idea came into his soul under the breath "of God.
Along with the duties of the apostolate, "absolute poverty" constituted the fundamental basis of the constitution of the mendicant orders. These two obligations: apostolate and poverty, complemented each other. The Friars Minor, according to Saint Francis, were to derive their subsistence solely from their "backpacking." They were to beg for everything they needed from door to door, and they were to ask for alms in each village only in exchange for the divine word and the rich treasures of their ministry, which they would first lavish on those from whose charity they came to seek their support.
Helping and assisting the parish clergy in the fulfillment of their pastoral duties, and making up for their inadequacy in extraordinary circumstances, such was the task to which we see the sons of Saint Francis dedicating themselves since their arrival in our lands, to the great satisfaction of this same secular clergy. The numerous attestations from parish priests and, above all, the moral and financial support provided by the parish clergy to the founding of new convents of the mendicant orders, especially the Recollects in the seventeenth century, clearly prove this.
— »1
Friars Minor in Germany, but rather to establishments similar to the houses for stationary and terminal patients called hospices, which we encounter almost everywhere in the Duchy of Luxembourg from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century/) in Larochette, Echternach, Vianden, Sierck, Virton, Carignan, etc. These were small cottages where the father or fathers stayed when they went to preach in these regions too far from the convent to return the same day. On Sundays they went to preach in the surrounding parishes, while during the week they lived in the small house where a lay brother, who always accompanied them, took care of their small household, while the fathers provided the local inhabitants with the assistance "of their vocation": they preached, catechized the children, and visited and cared for the sick.
To prove that these first establishments of the Friars Minor in Germany should be understood in this way, it suffices to note that, according to Brother Jourdain, in 1222 there was only one Senior Friar priest to serve the two cities of Worms and Speyer, where he alternately celebrated divine services and heard confessions, and that the establishments in the four cities of Mainz, Worms, Speyer, and Cologne had only one superior, Brother Thomas a Celano. Moreover, Brother Jourdain uses the name of hospitium and the annals of Worms-) speak of that of Worms as a small house.
___________________________
Notes:
') The documents we publish on these houses of stationary monks or hospices easily allow us to get a clear idea of how the fathers lived with their lay brothers and the role they played there.
>) Mon. Germ. Script. T. XYII, p. 38.
^) It is important, moreover, to guard against this historical prejudice that populates the cloisters of medieval monasteries with numerous phalanxes of monks, both clerics and laymen, because, with rare exceptions, the opposite is true: the number of monks in most convents was very limited. In particular for the sons of Saint I ran<;ois the convent was for them generally only a refuge where the fathers and lay brothers withdrew only from time to time, to recover from the fatigues of their apostolic journeys and to reinvigorate their morale in solitude and monastic exercises; as a general rule there were only very few religious present in the convent, except for the rare convents where the choir was held at Tinslar of the great abbeys. Thus during the fire of 1554, the Day of St. Barnabas, which completely destroyed the convent of the Friars-Mineuis of I uxemt)Ourg, there were only two religious in the convent, all the others were busy outside preaching and hearing confessions in the rural parishes.
The Recollect reform was initiated by Father Jean de Puebla, who inaugurated this reformation at the Le Carceri convent in Spain in 1487. In 1597, the convent of Saint-François-sur-Sanibre, in the Principality of Liège, and in 1588, the convent of Nivelles, in Brabant, were the first in the province of Flanders of the Friars Minor to embrace the new reform. However, it owed its extension above all to Father Pierre Marchant, a native of Couvin and a close relative of the founder of the house of the Counts of Marchant of Ansembourg. Father Marchant, appointed Commissioner-General of the German-speaking nation of the Order of the Friars Minor in 1649, devoted himself wholeheartedly to this work. In Luxembourg, the three convents of Luxembourg, Bastogne, and Troisvierges embraced the Recollect reform of their own accord and of their own free will in 1840. Everything happened so quietly that the only known official documents that inform us about the introduction of the Recollect reform in the Luxembourg convents are the declarations produced under Joseph I; the various chroniclers of the order also only mention the fact.
_______________
These five convents are the only ones whose existence is conclusively proven for the first quarter of the 13th century, and whose foundation certainly dates back to the lifetime of Saint Francis.
nor.
It would be a complete misunderstanding of the spirit that animated Saint Francis and his first disciples and the goal toward which they directed their labors to believe that the founding of new convents was the goal of their efforts; for them, it was merely a means to facilitate the pursuit of their vocation: the apostolate.
For the ancient orders, the monastery was the foundational stone on which everything rested. By making his vows, the monk attached himself for his entire life to a given monastery. Each monastery, so to speak, was an order of its own, having to meet all its needs. The ties that united the different convents of the same order were not very strong. Moving from one convent to another of the same order was formally forbidden by the rule and could only be done temporarily and with express dispensation.
Quite the opposite is true for the mendicant orders, particularly the Order of Saint Rançois. In truth, the entire order forms a single convent whose various members are, by necessity, distributed among the different houses, but only for the time required by the duties entrusted to them. The Friar Minor, when pronouncing his vows, does not attach himself to this or that house, but to the entire order, and the supreme power within the order assigns him the duties he must assume and the place where he must exercise them; but these appointments are only temporary and made according to the needs of the moment and the exigencies of the different localities.
of the Order in the provinces, that things were different. But then we saw part of the powers of the General Chapter pass to the Provincial Chapter, which for a long time still consisted of all the brothers, all of whom were required to attend; until the time when the number of brothers in a single province made it impossible to hold such a provincial chapter.
The General Chapter, by virtue of the Rule, meets every three years on the eve of the feast of Pentecost; it directs the Order through the Minister General, elected for three years by all the provincials and custodians attending the General Chapter.
Apart from the Minister General, the Rule recognizes as superiors only the provincial minister, superior of a province of the Order, and the superior custodian of a custodianship. The Guardians as local superiors are not recognized by the Rule, although they were already encountered during the lifetime of Saint Francis.
Originally, provincial ministers and custodes were appointed by the Minister General, but their appointments were first made to the General Chapter and finally, since Qément V (1305-1314), to the Provincial Chapter.
In the early days of the Order, the appointment of provincials and custodes was for life; soon, it was for only three years; re-election after the expiration of a first term was rare.
The powers of all these superiors—Minister General, Minister Provincial, Custos, and Guardian—were very limited. From the acts and documents we publish on the Order of Saint Francis in the Duchy of Luxembourg and its province of Flanders, it is clear that these superiors actually held only executive power, and the administration of the Order was the responsibility of the Provincial Chapter.
It is the provincial chapter that sets the "table" of the brothers of the province, that is, distributes the brothers to the various convents of the province; appoints confessors, preachers, as well as the various superiors; and ultimately decides on all matters.
When the provincials were appointed for life by the minister general or the general chapter, the provincial chapter met only according to the needs and requirements of the province. But when the provincials are appointed for only three years by the provincial chapter, the latter meets every three years, generally upon the return of the provincials from the general chapter.
After the expansion of the order made it impossible for all the brothers to attend the provincial chapter, the latter was formed by all the superiors: provincial minister, custodians, and guardians, and a father elected by and for each convent, the "pater discretus," or discreet father.
The various superiors of the order were hardly independent in the management of their duties. Although the rule hardly provides for a council adjunct to the superiors, the general definitors, who formed the council of the general minister, are already mentioned under Pope Alexander IV (1254 to 1202). Alongside the provincial ministers, we see the definitors, and alongside the guardians, the discreet fathers.
The religious and ascetic education of the young members of the order and their instruction were the responsibility of the province of the order. The father in charge of the religious and ascetic education of the novices was the Magister, while the father who provided instruction bore the name of Leeior.
For our regions and for the In the 17th and 18th centuries, neither the novitiate nor the house of study were attached to a specific convent, but were transferred from one convent to another according to the needs of the time or for other unknown reasons. Thus, the novitiate moved from Troisvierges to Diekirch and vice versa, or to the hermitage of Couvin. Theological and philosophical studies were conducted sometimes in Luxembourg, sometimes in Virton, then in Durbuy, etc.
IV.
At the general chapter celebrated in Assisi at Pentecost in 1221, Brother Caesarius of Speyer had been appointed provincial minister of the future Teutonic province. Having left in September
1221 in groups of three or four, the twenty-five monks destined for Germany met in Augsburg in the first half of October, and it was in Augsburg that the first convent of the Friars Minor in Germany was founded. Already on October 16, the brothers separated again to spread out in groups throughout Germany and pursue their vocation.
') We do not believe that the Father Lector and the Father Preacher, in this capacity, were by right part of the provincial chapter, contrary to other authors, because the list of fathers composing the provincial chapter of the province of Colosseum, from 1315, says, for example, Brother Conradus discretus lector, ibid., this description of discrete would be nonsensical if he had been by right a member of the provincial chapter as a lector.
CHAPTER II. The Religious Life of Luxembourg in the Thirteenth Century.
I.
Most of the former Duchy of Luxembourg depended for its spiritual needs on the ancient bishoprics of Trier and Liège, and only a relatively small number of localities belonged to other neighboring dioceses: Metz, Verdun, Keims, and Cologne.
The parish organization of the Diocese of Trier dates back at least to the time when St. Athanasius lived in exile in Trier, and the troubles of the migration of peoples could not completely destroy it, for the letter of Saint Falco, Bishop of Liège, to Saint Remi
It appears that by the end of the fifth century, parish organization in the two dioceses of Liège and Trier was broadly complete.
For the present-day Orand-Duchy of Luxembourg, few of the parishes that existed before the French Revolution date from after the reign of Louis the Pious, that is, the beginning of the ninth century. One of this emperor's capitularies ruled that upon the dismemberment of a parish, the tithe throughout the former parish would remain with the mother church, and that the maintenance of the clergy of the new parish should be provided for in another way. However, cases where tithes in a Luxembourg parish were collected by a neighboring parish are extremely rare; the parish of St. Michael in Luxembourg is one of the rare examples, the tithe in this parish being collected by the tithe collectors of the parish of Weimerskirch.
The maintenance of worship and parish deigi had to be provided by the tithe, but it is well known that from the time of the mayors of the palace the majority of the tithes had been deprived of their intended purpose and had been given as a fief to the great men of the century; especially by Charles Martel, and the provisions decreed on this subject by Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, only ratified this usurpation while seeking to attenuate its effect. But it was especially in the center of the Frankish kingdom, in the country situated between the Meuse and the Moselle, that is to say in our regions that these despoiling measures were most felt. At the beginning of the thirteenth century the Luxembourg clergy only received a third of the tithes, the few parishes which had retained them lost them at that time through the misuse of incorporations, a misuse which contemporary councils opposed in vain; Too many influences thwarted these salutary decrees. Apart from the tithe, the only thing left for the maintenance of the parish clergy, the parish priest having to pay his vicars from the parish income, was the parish dower. However, in Luxembourg, since its importance was not considerable at that time, the dower income could not offset the loss of the majority of the tithes. Also, until the 17th century, the financial situation of the parish clergy was quite precarious in the former Duchy of Luxembourg; consequently, the parish clergy were not very numerous before the 18th century and did not meet the needs.
The aid and assistance provided to the parish clergy by the mendicant orders, and above all by the Sons of Saint Francis, were not...
therefore not only useful, but indispensable; also the parish council eagerly accepted their disinterested help. It was only in the city of Luxembourg that these same causes had at certain times a completely opposite effect
Luxembourg is a new city; its origins date back
only to the time of the Norman incursions, during which the Abbey of St. Maximin, to provide refuge for its subjects from the domains of Weimerskirki, Steinsel, and Sandweiler, built the castle of Lucilinburhuc. In 983, when the Archbishop of Trier, Kingbert, consecrated the new church that Count Siegefrod, had had built in the barbican of Lucilinburhuc, which he had acquired twenty years earlier, the population of Luxembourg was so small that the Archbishop hardly considered the new church a parish church; the act of consecration makes no mention of this, which, of course, would have been done with the act of consecration, if the church of St. Michael had been erected as a parish church at that time. At the time of Siegefroid, the sparsely populated city of Luxembourg depended on three parishes: Weimerskirch, Hoürich, and Sandweiler. The castle, with its immediate surroundings, as well as the lower towns of Pfaffenthal and Clausen, with the territory of present-day Neudorf and part of Orund, depended on Weimerskirch. The western part of the upper town, with Pétrusse, and the other part of Onmd, were part of the parish of Hoürich, while the parish of Sandweiler, through the territory of Liamra and Fulvermuhie, reached as far as the same suburb of Grund.
The first parishes formed in Luxembourg were those of St. Michael and St. Udalric; in 1323, St. Nicholas was still part of Weimerskirch. The act of erection of any of the parishes of Luxemburg is unknown, probably because no parish was ever founded due to lack of a founder, and because all these churches, initially built as chapels, were never formally established as parishes. The creation of these parishes was due to the passage of time and custom, gradually eliminating the influence that the parish priests of Weimerskirch, Hollcrich, and Sandweiler exercised over their respective parts. The only small parish of St. John in Grund, separated from that of St. Michael in 1321, is an exception to this rule. The best proof that everything happened this way is the lack of dower in the parishes of St. Michael, St. Nicholas
and St. Udalric, a sine qua non condition imposed from time immemorial for the establishment of a new parish. The priests of these three parishes had no other income than the casuei and the fees of the foundations. This precarious economic situation of the parish church of Luxembourg easily explains how these quarrels, on the occasion of the casuei, could sometimes disturb the harmony that everywhere else united the secular clergy with the mendicant orders; for these difficulties between the parish clergy of the city of Luxembourg and the mendicant orders regularly coincide with economic depressions and periods of general malaise.
and of St. Udalric, a sine qua non condition imposed from time immemorial for the establishment of a new parish. The priests of these three parishes had no other income than the casuei and the fees of the foundations. This precarious economic situation of the parish church of Luxembourg easily explains how these quarrels, on the occasion of the casuei, could sometimes disturb the harmony that everywhere else united the secular clergy with the mendicant orders; for these difficulties between the parish clergy of the city of Luxembourg and the mendicant orders regularly coincide with economic depressions and periods of general malaise.
III.
The fortified castle of Luxembourg was located on a steep promontory which was connected only by a narrow strip of land to the high plateau, bordered by the steep valleys of the Alzette and the Pétrusse, on which stands the current upper town of Luxembourg, while its lower towns occupy the valley of the Alzette. The position of the new town was not too unfavorable for trade. Indeed, the old Roman road from Reims via Arlon to Trier passes through Luxembourg, and shortly before Luxembourg another Roman road branched off from it which, via Bonnevoie and Hespérange, led to Thionville and Metz, and it was by this road that during the Middle Ages traffic was carried between Lorraine and the Netherlands. This branch, a charter of Maximilian of 1480 still designates it under the name of road from Arlon to Metz. The development of the city of Luxembourg had also been relatively rapid. The first wall had quickly become overflowing, and at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the same was true of the second wall, which was only built in the twelfth century. However, it must be noted that, apart from the part of the upper town, located within the second wall and which was overpopulated, few bourgeois had settled at that time in the present-day upper town, which is completely lacking in water. The vast majority had settled in the lower towns and on the slopes of the Basse-Pétrusse, around Berliner Weg and in the Süd-Esphöt district.
At the turn of the thirteenth century, the taxable bourgeois population, excluding the part of the city dependent on Munster Abbey, numbered over five thousand inhabitants. Taking into account those exempted by birth, status, position, or poverty, it must be assumed that the entire city of Luxembourg had at least ten thousand inhabitants.
XXI
This bourgeois population in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was very well-off, not to say opulent. As proof, it suffices to point out the constructions and foundations of the chapels erected in Luxembourg during these two centuries, which were built solely by bourgeois. Except for one, none of these chapels were under seigneurial or county patronage, and these chapels were numerous. We know the founder of one of them, the future parish church of St. Nicholas: the bourgeois Hezelon, who, after erecting it at his own expense on his land and endowed it with his own funds, donated it in 1166 to the Abbey of Munster, which retained the right of patronage until it was forcibly taken from him by the young Pierre-Ernest de Mansfeld, to be attributed to the crown. This chapel was located inside the second enclosure, the Chamber of Deputies occupies its site today. All the other chapels were outside the second enclosure. In the upper town, on the left bank of the valley of the Basse-Pétrusse, near the S^Esprit, was the chapel of the S*«-Trinité, whose patronage belonged in the 14th century to the family of Meysembouig; opposite, in the district of the Oare, stood another chapel of S^-Nicolas; at the end of the Basse Péfaiisse, opposite the chapel of S^Quirin which, it should be said in parentheses, only dates from the fourteenth century and was never endowed, was the chapel of S^-Marc, towards which the processions headed on the day of banal festivals; at the mouth of the Pétrusse was the parish church of S'-Udalric; In Clausen, the hermitage, "Klause," and the chapel of St. Margaret, from which this suburb takes its name; finally, in Pfaffenthal, the chapel of St. Malhieu.
In terms of religious houses, Luxembourg had only one male convent at the beginning of the 13th century: the Munster Abbey of the Order of St. Benedict, and one female convent: the Penitent Nuns of the Order of St. Mary Magdalene. To these were added during the same century the house of the Teutonic Order of St. Isabel at Orund, opposite Süddalric, and in the upper town, the convent of the Friars Minor and one or two small female convents.
CHAPTER 5. Foundation of the Convent of the Friars Minor in Luxembourg.
I.
Dating the foundation of their convent back to the lifetime of their founder, when it comes close enough to it, is a characteristic feature.
Stopped at Chapter 3
The mid-sixteenth century, which, as a result of the wars between Francis I and Charles V, was disastrous for the Duchy of Luxembourg, was especially fatal for the ecclesiastical establishments of the city of Luxembourg. During the attack and capture of the city of Luxembourg by the French in 1543, the ancient Munster Abbey, located at the gates of Luxembourg Castle, as well as the Dominican convent, located at the foot of the Rocher du Bouc, were given over to the flames. Ten years later, a violent fire destroyed the part of the city of Luxembourg surrounding the convent of the (x)rdeliers, reached the roofs of the convent church, and caused the explosion of the gunpowder stored by the military engineers in the attic of the church. The explosion completely ruined the convent, and the only two priests left to guard it perished beneath the ruins. After the destruction of their monastery, the Friars Preachers withdrew to a small house adjoining the church of St. Michael, and it was only half a century later that they were able to consider building a new monastery, thanks to the generosity of John, Lord of Brandenburg and Meisenburg. Munster Abbey also remained in distress for a long time, and it was only under Abbot Lysius, more than twenty years after the destruction of the first monastery, that work began on the construction of a new convent.
Only the cloister and the church of the Friars Minor were immediately reborn from the ruins, thanks to the support given to them by the bourgeoisie of Luxembourg and the rural population, led by the alderman of Luxembourg, Brenner, and his wife, née Houszmann.
Willingly accepted by the Franciscan monks of Luxembourg, they never failed, as evidenced by the extreme poverty in which we find the convents when they were abolished by the French Revolution; they lived from hand to mouth, and this poverty extended even to the objects of worship, as evidenced by the inventories of their furnishings drawn up by the commissioners of the French Republic.
— LIX —
The opening of the new streets through the garden of the Luxembourg convent and the opening of the well in the same garden.
Now that the rule of the new reform required the Friars Minor to observe the strictest poverty, the Provincial Council of Luxembourg attempted to cut off the only resource left to support them: the collection, by granting precedence to the Dominican Fathers of the city of Luxembourg.
Despite the word, this question of precedence has nothing to do with honorary prerogatives, as even Father Prévost, in his note on the former convent of the Friars Minor, was willing to admit.*) The collections of the mendicant monks were not made arbitrarily, but at specific times and were regulated by customary law: where there were monks of several mendicant orders, Friars Minor, and Dominicans. Whether Carmelite or otherwise, customary law assigned precedence not only in ceremonies, but especially in collections, to the convents of the region whose foundation dated back further. Thus, in Luxembourg, the Friars Minor, whose arrival in Luxembourg preceded that of the Friars Preachers by nearly 50 years, had the right to make their collection first, and it was only after completing theirs that the Dominicans of Luxembourg could collect in turn. Now, taking advantage of the introduction of the Recollect reform in Luxembourg, the Provincial Council granted the Recollects of Luxembourg the right of precedence and thereby dealt a fatal blow to the collections of the Recollects. In vain they asserted their rights and reduced to nothing the reasons alleged by the decision of the Provincial Council. The latter maintained its sentence. A new attempt by the Recollects at the time of the taking possession of Luxembourg by the French to regain their right to make their collection first, had no better result, the Provincial Council, despite the facts and customary law, maintained the right of precedence of the Dominicans.
Minors, and to such an extent that, around 1660, they were finally able to consider rebuilding their convent and church. Given the economic situation of the country at that time, the undertaking seemed foolhardy even to close friends of the Recollects like the Blancharts; Antoine de Bianchait described it as a "bold and great undertaking."* And yet the Recollects' confidence in the people's support was not disappointed. In less than eight years, the convent and church were completed, and twenty years later, the church was furnished, all in that sober and severe style that happily combines both the grandeur of the house of God and the "absolute poverty" professed by the monks who, with the help of the poor, had built this house of the Almighty.
During the construction of the new church, the Friars Minor hardly forgot their former benefactors; With the permission of the Archbishop of Trier, they removed the bodies buried in their old church, which was destined to disappear, and buried them in the new church.
IV.
Along with the reconstruction of the Luxemburg convent, the Recollects led the founding of three new convents: those of Diekirch, Virton, and Hamipré. Already in 1642 an attempt had been made to settle in Diekirch at the invitation of the priest of this town, but the government having refused its authorization, the Fathers were forced to temporarily abandon the place and it was only twenty years later, at the insistence of another priest of Diekirch, Lord Melchior Blanchart, that the Recollect Fathers attempted a new attempt, and this time with complete success, thanks to the support of all the inhabitants of Diekirch and the surrounding area, of several members of the Provincial Council, first and foremost of its president Eustache de Wiltheîm, and to the dedication of Father Martin Coonen, in charge of the negotiations. The new convent was inaugurated on November 23, 1665. The two chroniclers of the convent of Dieldrch have left us a picture of the self-denial and devotion of the first Fathers, especially during the plague that devastated Diekirch and Vianden in 1668 and where four Recollect Fathers died in the service of the plague victims. They also show us the attachment of the people to the poor religious, their prodigious prodigality towards them which allowed the new convent and its church to be built despite the miseries of the time. At the head of the benefactors of the convent of Diekirch were finds the lord of Brandcnbour^^^ Jacques de Bicver, who not only gave them abundantly of his earthly goods, but also his eldest son, Sébastien, who entered the Recollects and who, as guardian of the convent of Oiekirch, inaugurated in 1702 the relic of the convent
In Virton, the Friars Minor already owned a hospice for the Terminal Fathers who preached in these regions in 1420, but they had probably lost it due to the misfortunes of the times and the calamities of the war which, from 1507 until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, had continually devastated Luxembourg.
In 1651, the Terminal Fathers enjoyed the hospitality of a bourgeois, Quintin l'Allemand, during their stay in Virton, who provided them with a small room for this purpose. But already a few years later, the Recollects of Luxembourg occupied a small house in Virton where several Terminal Fathers resided. For the permanent reestablishment of even a hospice or residence, the government required that his consent be sought. The Recollects believed they could dispense with this, given that since the time of Archdukes Albert and Isabella, the Luxembourg convent had received government authorization for the construction of a convent of their order in Villeniont, only about 15 kilometers from Virton.
Therefore, they initially received no difficulty. Then came the fateful year of 1668, when the plague wreaked such havoc in Virton and the surrounding area. The dedication of the Recollects of the Virton hospice to the service of plague victims, as in Diekirch and Vianden, aroused the admiration of the entire population, and this led to the unanimous wish of the entire population that the Virton hospice be permanently transformed into a stable and permanent convent, a wish that the priest of Virton, along with the entire bourgeoisie, had already formally expressed shortly before the outbreak of the contagion in a petition to the Privy Council. This petition had been referred for advice by the Privy Council to the Provincial Council of Luxembourg and to the Dean of Luxembourg on March 9, 1667. But it was only seven years later, on April 2, 1674, that Charles II authorized the Recollects to found a convent of their order in Virton, this authorization being motivated by the loss of part of the garden of their convent in Luxembourg, confiscated by the government and assigned as building sites to the bouiigeois whose houses had been demolished for reasons of fortification. However, the Recollects were unable to peacefully enjoy the authorization granted to them by the royal letters patent. Due to strong opposition in Luxembourg government circles, which we will discuss below, an edict of the Privy Council of February 24, 1676, restricted the concession to a hospice or residence, placed under the guardianship of the Luxembourg convent and capable of having no more than eight religious members. This was done.
It was only under French rule, in 1668, that the Virton residence was erected into a convent and Father Ange Rousseau became its guardian.
During the 16th century, the Recollects of the Virton convent founded the Virton college; there they taught the humanities to the young people of the town and surrounding area, to the great satisfaction of the entire population, at whose express request they had taken it upon themselves.
Source: page 347 [Internet Archive] https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Vp46AQAAMAAJ/page/n347/mode/2up?q=Virton&view=theater
Publications de la Section Historique de l'Institut G.-D. de Luxembourg (ci-devant "Société Archéologique du Grand-Duché") sous le Protectorat son Altesse Royale le Grand-Duc de Luxembourg. Volume LIV. Luxembourg: Imprimerie Joseph Beffort, 1909; digitized at Internet Archive.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE HISTORICAL SECTION OF THE GRAND DUCHY INSTITUTE OF LUXEMBOURG (formerly the "SOCIETY OF ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE GRAND DUCHY") UNDER THE PROTECTORATE OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE GRAND DUKE OF LUXEMBOURG. Volume LIV.
Recueil d'Actes et Documents concernant les Fréres-Mineurs dans l'Ancien Duché de Luxembourg et Comté de Chiny, par l'Abbé Jacques Grob.
COLLECTION OF ACTS AND DOCUMENTS concerning THE FRIAR MINOR IN THE FORMER DUCHY OF LUXEMBOURG AND COUNTY OF CHINY by Abbot Jacques Grob. [Priest at Bivingen-Berchem]
The name of the original order, Ordo Fratrum Minorum (Friars Minor, literally 'Order of Lesser Brothers') stems from Francis of Assisi's rejection of luxury and wealth. Francis was the son of a rich cloth merchant but gave up his wealth to pursue his faith more fully. He had cut all ties that remained with his family and pursued a life living in solidarity with his fellow brothers in Christ.[10]
In other words, he abandoned his life among the wealthy and aristocratic classes (or majori) to live like the poor and peasants (minori). Francis adopted the simple tunic worn by peasants as the religious habit for his order and had others who wished to join him do the same. Those who joined him became the original Order of Friars Minor.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franciscans/