Page 113 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

92 INvITATToN To ENGLAND
In the midst of all this gloom, Brother Ryken saw one
gleam of hope that did not turn out to be an ignis
fatuus. Actually it grew brighter and brighter. Previ'
ously he had sought foundations in America, but now
he saw the possible chance of getting to America by
way of England. The invitation to go to England had
come to him unsolicited.
"Brugge, the City of Bridges," possessed a special
attraction for the tourist because it was a moderately-
priced place in which to live. To the ordinary visitor
it meant the Town Hall with its museum of fine art,
the famed carillon, canals and their humpbacked
bridges, cobblestone streets, dogs pulling milk carts,
peasants in wooden shoes. To the Catholic, especially
one from Protestant England, it provided the Catholic
atmosphere: the cathedral, ancient churches, streets
named after Our Lady and the saints, the Shrine of the
Precious Blood, the angelus bells, frequent Masses, re-
ligious processions, the priest met occasionally on the
street accompanied by a stooped sexton or a galloping
altar boy with tinkling bell and lighted candle. It was
all so difterent.
In Bruges could be found convents for English nuns,
dating back to Penal Days. It had been the gathering
point for seminarians fleeing from France during the
French Revolution. Baron Sutton was contemplating
the establishment of "Seminaire Anglo-Belge." So nu-
merous were these visitors, both permanent and tran-
sient, that in several churches the sermon was delivered
in English.
Ryken's introduction to things English had come
through some of these visitors. He reported to a "Rev-
erend and dear Friend," presumably Father Van Beek:
"At one time or another we received in Bruges, English
visitors who come to visit our school. These trayelers,