Page 84 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

Chapter 10

CLOTHED IN H,A.BIT

T] ARLv rN Srprrnasrn, 1843, Mr. Ryken was making
..1f, plans for the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, Decem-
ber third. He had hopes of clothing himself and some
of his disciples in a religious habit. One of his incidental
pro'blems was to procure the cloth for the habits, cloth
that he could afiord. With this in mind he wrote to
Count de Biolley, who owned a mill at Verviers, and
he was looking for more than cloth.

Bruges, Sept.2, 1843
My dear Count:
. . . To make clear to you our precarious condi-
tion, I must tell you frankly that humanly speaking
I do not see how we can make a go of the afiair.
As a matter of fact, the town of Bruges seems
little suited for the establishment of a new convent.
Already there exists no less than twenty convents
and other pious establishments, serreral of them
entirely dependent on charity.
Furthermore, the poor constitute a large part of
the population, maybe 20,000.
So we find ourselves in a difficult situation. With
no regrets I would leave Bruges if I should find else-
where some noble and charitable soul inclined to
aid us in the establishment of our work. . . .
The establishment of our Infant-School gave me
the opportunity of making the acquaintance of the