The Antwerp Dominicans and their pastoral activities

In the 17^th and 18^th centuries the Antwerp Dominican conventComplex of buildings in which members of a religious order live together. They follow the rule of their founder. The oldest monastic orders are the Carthusians, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians [and their female counterparts]. Note: Benedictines, Premonstratensians, and Cistercians [and their female counterparts] live in abbeys; Jesuits in houses. was the largest and the most flourishing one in the Southern Low Countries. Next to Louvain and Douai Antwerp was the third convent to train aspirant Dominicans. After one probationary year the candidate, or ‘novice’, could take his vows. Even more Dominicans came to the Antwerp convent attracted by the courses in theology and philosophy on an academic level. This Studium Generale, founded in 1641, was supported by scholarships from the Capello family, formalized as such in 1670. As a result some eighty of the seven hundred members of the Dutch Province lived in Antwerp. In 1786 Joseph II forbade the Dominican study centre to continue after he himself had founded the general seminary in Louvain. In 1796 there were fifty three Dominicans in the convent, not including the missionaries in the Dutch missions.

As was the case elsewhere the main activities of the Preachers were giving sermons, hearing confessions and writing spiritual and devotional literature. One can form an image of the sermons when reading the devotional literature. For the history of mentality it is certainly worthwhile to plough through this literature. Sermons were given in the churches on Sundays and Christian holy days, mostly in the afternoons, separate from the services, which were held in the mornings.

The confessionals in the church testify of the practice of confessionThe sacrament of reconciliation. The believer [or penitent] confesses his / her shortcomings to a priest [the confessor] and expresses his / her regret. On behalf of God the priest grants forgiveness [absolution] and imposes a form of penance. This may include several prayers, an order to reconcile with the other party or, in the past, sometimes a pilgrimage.. However artistically elaborate they may be, they do not tell us from whom the Dominicans took confessions, and even less of what they heard or which spiritual advice they gave. The secret of the confessionalA piece of furniture that was especially designed to facilitate the sacrament of confession, especially by avoiding that confessor and penitent come face to face. To the left and right are kneeling pews for penitents; in the middle is a small booth where the confessor sits. Both are separated from each other by a partition with a grid, so that the confessor can hear the penitent, but cannot see him / her. must be respected.

Exceptionally we have been informed ‘better’ about one conversation in the confessional, but truly it was a very controversial kind of confession. When the Calvinists were the majority in the Antwerp city councilA large meeting of ecclesiastical office holders, mainly bishops, presided by the pope, to make decisions concerning faith, church customs, etc. A council is usually named after the place where it was held. Examples: the Council of Trent [1645-1653] and the Second Vatican Council [1962-1965], which is also the last council for the time being. and expelled the monastics, fatherPriest who is a member of a religious order. Antonius Temmerman was one of the few Dominicans to stay in the city to continue the Catholic spiritual care. Because Temmerman knew French and Spanish, the Basque Juan Jauregui came to him to confess and to ask forgiveness for his intention (!) to murder William of Orange. Remorse, which however is a condition sine qua non for acquittal of sins and sacramental reconciliation, was out of the question. Still father Temmerman granted him absolution (forgiveness). Jauregui executed his plan in Antwerp on 18^th March 1582, but the prince survived the assault. Jauregui was killed on the spot. The documents he was carrying proved father Temmerman’s involvement, who, even on the rack would not have violated the secret of the confessional. Temmerman was hanged and afterwards drawn and quartered. Catholics considered him a martyrSomeone who refused to renounce his/her faith and was therefore killed. Many martyrs are also saints. for the secret of the confessional. His skull, with the ear he had heard the confession with and an arm he had blessedUsed of a person who has been beatified. Beatification precedes canonisation and means likewise that the Church recognises that this deceased person has lived a particularly righteous and faithful life. Like a saint, he/she may be venerated (not worshipped). Some beatified people are never canonised, usually because they have only a local significance. Jauregui with for absolution, were kept as gruesome relics in the Antwerp SaintThis is a title that the Church bestows on a deceased person who has lived a particularly righteous and faithful life. In the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church, saints may be venerated (not worshipped). Several saints are also martyrs. Paul’s church until they were transferred to the new Antwerp Dominican convent in Ploegstraat in 1928. In 1973 they disappeared from the church after a burglary.

More currently ‘Catholic’ were the confessional conversations of for instance Pieter Paul Rubens with father Michaël Ophovius, and of archduke Albert, early 17^th century, with father Hyancinth Choquet, from Lille but a member of the Antwerp convent.

Specific devotions want to emphasize a concrete focus within religious perception. Some of them have become more prominent due to the foundation of a fraternity such as The Sweet Name of  Jesus, the Holy SacramentIn Christianity, this is a sacred act in which God comes to man. Sacraments mark important moments in human life. In the Catholic Church, there are seven sacraments: baptism, confession, Eucharist, confirmation, anointing of the sick, marriage and ordination., Our Lady of the Rosary, the Fraternity of the Palmers, which mostly made use of an altarThe altar is the central piece of furniture used in the Eucharist. Originally, an altar used to be a sacrificial table. This fits in with the theological view that Jesus sacrificed himself, through his death on the cross, to redeem mankind, as symbolically depicted in the painting “The Adoration of the Lamb” by the Van Eyck brothers. In modern times the altar is often described as “the table of the Lord”. Here the altar refers to the table at which Jesus and his disciples were seated at the institution of the Eucharist during the Last Supper. Just as Jesus and his disciples did then, the priest and the faithful gather around this table with bread and wine. of their own.

Because among others it was the city council that called the Dominicans to the town, they were also the chaplains of the Town Hall’s chapel
A small church that is not a parish church. It may be part of a larger entity such as a hospital, school, or an alms-house, or it may stand alone.
An enclosed part of a church with its own altar.
, possibly already since 1324, but certainly from 1401 until 1538. At least until the middle of the 15^th century the city council treated the Dominicans to a (festive) dinner at the occasion of the chapters of the Teutonic province in Antwerp. It may be a coincidence but when the old Gothic town hall was pulled down in 1565 its flight of steps was reconstructed at the Dominicans’, near the cellar stairs at the northern end of the northern wing (as can be seen on a small etching of the convent).

Soon the Dominicans became active among the troops of the Duke of Alba’s new citadel. The provisional chapel, consecratedIn the Roman Catholic Church, the moment when, during the Eucharist, the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, the so-called transubstantiation, by the pronouncement of the sacramental words. in 1568, was replaced by a bigger church as early as 1574.

In the Waasland the Antwerp Dominicans served so-called stations, for instance in Beveren (1688-1777), Melsele and Haasdonk. This included mainly preaching, possibly followed by an offertory and/or hearing confessions.

After 1585 Antwerp was responsible for some five missionary posts in the so-called Holland Mission, the apostolate in the officially Protestant Northern Low Countries. One of the last Antwerpians in that mission was father Theodoor Broeckaert, vicarAccording to Canon Law, a vicar is a substitute of a minister. In a diocese, several vicars assist a bishop: priests who look after a certain policy area within the diocese (parishes, liturgy, etc.). in the Kerck de Tooren in Amsterdam, where in 1800 he was buried in the Protestant (!) Oude Kerk. In his honour a memory medal was issued. Further the Antwerp Dominicans took care of other missions in the North, such as in Denmark and Norway. It is known there were even plans for Russia.

After they had been asked to do so by bishopPriest in charge of a diocese. See also ‘archbishop’. Johannes Miraeus, they opened a Latin School in 1605 in Dries, until the magister-general preferred a theological school. Then the pupils were transferred to the Jesuit college in Prinsstraat.

The convent of the Dominican nuns in the nearby Predikerinnenstraat [Preacheresses Street], which was devoted to Saint Catherine of Siena, was under spiritual guidance of a Dominican father, who was also the regular(Adj.) This is said of a priest who is a member of a religious order and therefore submits to the rule of this order and owes obedience to the superior of his (monastic) community. confessor there, from 1635 until the abolishment by Joseph II in 1783.