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| The abbess's house from 1738, converted in the 19th century into a château. |
A former Cistercian convent of Aywiers/Awirs in the Walloon Brabant province is a lovely place. The grounds of
this private property are opened to the public twice a year for a
garden fair.
The place holds a story of a woman whose religious devotion would leave a strong imprint on the Christian creed.
For Aywiers, during the Middle Ages, was for 40 years home to Saint Lutgarde, one of the greatest mystics, a contemporary of St. Francis, to this day held in high esteem as the patron saint of Flanders.
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Lutgarde (or Lutgardis in Latin) was born in 1182 in Tongres. At the age of 12, she was placed under the care of the Benedictine nuns at their convent in Saint Trond near her home town. The reason for this was because her father lost her dowry
in a failed business venture. In those days, a lack of dowry would foreclose an option of marriage. This must have been a disappointing turn of events for Lutgarde who, by all accounts, also happened to be very beautiful. Lutgarde had no vocation to become a nun and seemed to treat the convent more like a boarding house, an attitude which the nuns apparently did little to discourage. They for instance tolerated visits by her male friends.
However, an unexpected experience would change her life for good.
One day, while Lutgarde was speaking with her friend, who entertained feelings towards her, Christ appeared in her vision asking her to cease this earthly relationship and to find love in Him only. Such was the vividness and strength of that vision that she lost consciousness, striking fear in the heart of the gentleman. Afterwards, her
outlook changed completely. She gave up on worldly affection and decided to become a nun. From then on, her life would be filled with mystical
experiences and miracles, all centred on the longing for the Saviour.
One of the most profound experiences of Saint Lutgarde was her mystical espousal with Christ through an "interchange of hearts". According to Lutgarde's biographer the American Trappist monk Thomas Merton, this marked her a forerunner of the Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which spread particularly since the 18th century. In another vision, Lutgarde was visited by Saint John the Evangelist in the form of an eagle. He granted her the powers to comprehend theology in great depth.
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When Lutgarde was 23, the Benedictine nuns elected her prioress. This honour marked a decisive departure from earlier suspicions held by many nuns that her experiences were tricks of the devil. However, far from welcoming such recognition Lutgarde found it unwelcome, as the additional administrative burdens would detract her from her chosen path. She decided she could not stay among the Benedictines and started to look for a more contemplative community. So,
on the
advice of a learned preacher of Liege, Jean de Lierre, and her Flemish friend - Saint Christina known as the Astonishing,
Lutgarde
left the Benedictines and in 1208 joined the Cistercian nuns at
a newly-established convent of Aywiers. The renowned Dominican theologian and later bishop of Cambrai Thomas of Cantimpré, a
contemporary of Lutgarde's for 16 years and her earliest biographer,
wrote in Vita Piae Lutgardiae that one of Lutgarde's, a Flemish nun's, penances was her difficulty to master French, the language spoken in this
convent. Notwithstanding this, Lutgarde would spend 40 years at Aywiers. While at Aywiers, she received the sigmata, apparently the first person to do so, in addition to experiences of the sweat of blood. She went on prolonged fasts in reparation for the heresy of the Albigensians, then raging in southern France, until a crusade, called for by Pope Innocent III, put a stop to it. Cantimpré also recalls her exercising the power to heal the sick and visits by souls from the purgatory asking for her prayers of intercession.
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Living on bread, vegetables and diluted beer (then a monastic drink) alone during three seven-year fasts and her ascetic lifestyle must have taken their toll. Blindness beset her in the last 11 years of her life. Lutgarde did not despair. She actually thought that this handicap was a gift strengthening her detachment from the world. Saint Lutgarde died in 1246, apparently having been told by God the exact time of her departure. What is more, it turned out that she expired on the same day of the month on which Saint Margaret Mary was
to have her vision of the Sacred Heart, in the year 1675.
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After her death, as typical of many monastic establishments in the Low Countries, the Aywiers abbey went through ups and downs, falling victim to the religious strife typical of the age and then rebounding with greater gusto. Only the French
Revolution put an end to the once thriving and powerful Aywiers convent. The new private owner of this property had a lot of the buildings dismantled and sold for building materials. What has remained are the abbess's house, converted into an elegant mansion, farm buildings, some of the gates, and the old stone walls, now enclosing 9 hectares of a lovely park, filled with grazing sheep and goats.
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The nuns found refuge in a château in nearby Ittre, taking
with them their prized possessions: 17th cent. silver reliquary of St.
Lutgarde, 15th. century relic of the Holy Cross and a reliquary of St.
Sybille of Gages, Lutgarde's fellow nun at Aywiers, her friend and
infirmarian, which they deposited at a local church for
safekeeping. The last of the nuns died in 1849. Thus ends the religious history of this little, nearly forgotten corner of Brabant.
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| An original convent wall by a rear gate |
