The foundation of our congregation was surrounded by difficulties. It was the combined inspiration and workforce of two men that made the congregation: the priest Louis Rutten and the first superior, brother Bernard Hoecken.

The Netherlands were hardly developed in the early nineteenth century, especially in the southern, catholic parts of the country. The masses lived in poverty, worked hard and died young. There was hardly any education or health care for them.

Louis Rutten was born in Maastricht on December 8, 1809. He was trained as a priest and was ordained in 1837. He very much wanted to be a missionary, but that was not possible because of his poor health. Therefore he became a missionary in his own country.

Fighting poverty

Rutten was a deeply committed man, both socially and religiously. He was concerned about the religious indifferentism into which many people lapsed, partly because of the deplorable situations in which they had to live. He thought it a disgrace that small children had to work in big factories. He started giving catechism classes to poor children in a lost corner of Saint Servaas Church, at the same time providing them with food and clothes.

Rutten founded two kindergartens, established evening classes for adolescent factory workers and helped founding the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Maastricht. He also invited the Sisters of Mercy to come to his town and run a home for unmarried mothers.

Headwind

Despite of his good work, Rutten met with many problems. His father and some clergymen wanted him to be a parish priest and opposed to his work for poor children. The civil authorities and the secret police looked at his activities with suspicion. He became physically and financially exhausted.

Rutten decided to try and establish a congregation of brothers. ‘The beginning of the brothers was most miserable’, he wrote in his autobiography. ‘When the number of postulants increased by three, two others left. If we had not hoped for God's generous help, we should not have thought the foundation of the congregation possible.’

The brothers lived in a small and wretched house, had few means, a lack of education and of human consolation. Nevertheless, the congregation was founded on 21 November 1840. After a difficult start it rapidly spread in The Netherlands and in Belgium, where the brothers ran schools and orphanages, worked for deaf children and founded some boarding schools.

The first superior

God’s generous help reached Rutten in the person of Bernard Hoecken, born in Tilburg on May 13, 1810. He entered the noviciate of the Brothers of Charity in Belgium, in 1840, but he went to Maastricht when Rutten asked him, only days before the official foundation of the Brothers FIC.

Bernard, although still a novice, was a natural leader. He was elected superior in 1841 and helped building up the congregation. The founder and the first superior trusted each other completely and shared their focus. The congregation started small, ‘poor and insignificant’, bro. Bernard wrote in 1865. ‘Its field of activity: taking care of and guarding some poor children and in the meantime instructing others in Christian doctrine...’. That was all. From there the congregation started to grow and flourish. But, as bro. Bernard emphasised time and again: ‘The congregation will only be happy as long as the poor take the first place’.

Friendship and frailty

Round 1860 the weak health of Louis Rutten declined. He became melancholic, pessimistic and saw difficulties everywhere. Life became a big burden to him. In 1871 he suffered a mental breakdown and was admitted to a care home in Tienen, Belgium. Bro. Bernard visited him every fortnight. In numerous letters he mentioned how he worried for his friend, fearing to loose him.

But it was bro. Bernard who went first. He died during a visit to brothers in Helmond, on October 22, 1880. At that time the congregation numbered 192 brothers and sixteen novices, living and workin in fifteen different places. Louis Rutten, still living in the care home in Tienen, wrote: ‘The unexpected death of our highly esteemed and beloved superior gave me quite a shock. It will always be an unforgettable loss to me. The reverend brother was my lasting friend, so to say, the one to whom I was deeply attached.’

Living examples

Rutten himself never really recovered. He died on December 16, 1891. He was buried at the municipal cemetery of Maastricht, but in December 1991 his mortal remains were solemnly transferred to the cemetery of the Brothers FIC in Maastricht, where Bernard Hoecken is also buried.

Louis Rutten and Bernard Hoecken continue to inspire us. They do so by their writings, but even more so by the examples of brotherhood and sincere concern for the poor. We honour their memories.