Province

Province

The confreres of the Franco-Belgian-Dutch Province are present in the three countries indicated in its name:

 

Beauchêne – the provincial house (Archdiocese of Poitiers),

Eysines and Lesparre (Archdiocese of Bordeaux),

Six-Fours-les-Plages (Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon),

Ventiseri (Diocese of Ajaccio),

Gerpinnes and Chimay (Diocese of Tournai),

Nijmegen (Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden).

 

The life of a Canon is similar to the pastoral service of diocesan priests, but our ideal is to live and work in community. In our Province, the confreres work mostly in parishes, collaborating with the diocesan priests. We also run a Marian shrine, while a few carry out other ministries: sacramental ministry to the armed forces, university chaplaincy, the Diocesan Chancery, etc. We are always open to serve according to bishops’ requests and the needs of a local Church.

 

 

The Province does not live apart; it is rooted in the Congregation and local Churches. Each day, we strive to put into practice the ideal left us by St. Augustine, who had the inspiration for our Order: community life (sharing a common table, putting in common spiritual and material goods); liturgical life (we are called to be experts of the liturgical life and, above all, to celebrate it daily); pastoral life (responding to the pastoral needs of the Congregation and diocesan Churches in profound union with our pastors).

In the very beginning, Saint Augustine gathered together secular priests in his house so as to live a common life, and we today are the heirs of this initiative:

" How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together as one! ” (Ps. 133:1)