P.J.
Triest was born in
Brussels
in 1760.
He took holy orders in an agitated time.
One political regime replaced another in quick succession;
the Roman Catholic Church was going through hard times during the
French Revolution. From
1797 till 1802, the nonjuring Fr Triest had to live in hiding and to
administer the sacraments in secret.
Yet, this period was fruitful in that his inner drive to help
the neighbour matured. Moved
by Jesus' words, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did
this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to
me" (Mt, 25:40), he devoted himself to the poorest, the orphans
of Ronse.
Having
been appointed parish priest in Lovendegem in 1803, he founded his
first Congregation, the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, a few
months after his arrival. They
would care for abandoned and poor children of his parish.
In
1806 he was made a member of the Commission of Hospices in
Ghent
, where his pastoral care would come
to full bloom-. the poor, the aged, the mentally ill, the foundlings
- all these needy people, the least privileged were the object of
his loving attention. In
1807 he founded the Brothers of Charity to care for "poor
elderly and the mentally ill".
In 1825 he established the Brothers of St John of God for
domicillary care of the poor sick-, and in 1835, a year before his
death, he concluded his founding work by instituting the Sisters of
Jesus' Childhood, who were meant to care for foundlings.
During
the period of thirty years that Fr Triest helped to organise poor
relief in
Ghent
he introduced several improvements of which the liberation of the
mentally ill from their chains and dismal quarters at Gerard the
Devil
Castle
was one of the most memorable. His
approach to any fellow human being was to bring him God's message of
deliverance from inhuman treatment as a sign of love, and he did so
successfully. Peter
Joseph Triest, meanwhile honoured as Canon of St Bavon's cathedral
in
Ghent
,
died in 1836. His dying
words, "give and there will be given to you", are a
poignant summary of the total dedication of his life to the
neighbour.
© Brother Rene Stockman,
Superior General,
Brothers of Charity,
Rome
