Page 88 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

CLOTHED IN HABIT 6V
did not retrench. He could not. If his Brotherhood
rvere to survive, it had to have a definite assured income.
The Xaverian Brothers Free-Infant-School continued to
operate with the aid of charitably-minded men and
women. There were several boys who boarded at "Het
Walletje" and attended the pay-school on the grounds.
The sale of the garden produce brought some revenue,
but the prices were ruinously low.
The Founder was nothing if not venturesome. He
decided that the solution to his problem of insufficient
incsme was to open a school in a better section of the
town and to charge tuition. On 15, 1844, he
January
rented at 450 francs a year "La Bellevue," a one-time
Inn and more recently a Freemasons' Lodge. Brother
John Seghers described it as "a middle-class school for
the better classes in the heart of Bruges."
"ta Bellevue" was on St. Salvator Kerkhof directly
opposite the sacristy o{ St. Salvator Cathedral and almost
back-to-back with the Bishop's house. The general area
was known as the Cemetery of Saint Saviour, but in 1844
all vestiges of its original use as a churchyard had long
since disappeared. Every house in the neighborhood
was well known to Brother Ryken for he had lived here
in his days with Father Van den Poel.
With four men in training and only eight left to look
after the Infant-School, the new school in the heart o[
the city, and all the needs o{ keeping a community
functioning physically, Ryken had apparently over-ex-
tended himself, but he did not think so. Quite the con-
trary. He was very much of a mind to send some Broth-
ers to supervise St. Vincent's Orphanage in Baitimore,
Maryland. He would have done it had not Bishop
Boussen advised delay.
On August 16, 1844, he informed Father Gildea, the
pastor at St. Vincent's: "I have spoken on this matter