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CICM Missionaries

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The CICM Missionaries , officially known as the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ( Latin : Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae ) and often abbreviated as C.I.C.M , is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men established in 1862 by the Belgian Catholic priest Theophile Verbist (1823–1868). Its members add the post-nominal letters C.I.C.M. to their names to indicate membership in the congregation.

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27-768: The order's origins lie in Scheut , a suburb of Brussels , due to which it is widely known as the Scheut Missionaries. The congregation is most notable for their international missionary works in China , Mongolia , the Philippines , and in the Congo Free State / Belgian Congo (modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo ). Presently, their international name "CICM Missionaries" is preferred, although, in

54-678: A municipality of Brussels , Belgium. Located in the north of Anderlecht, it is bounded by the border with the municipality of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean to the north, the historical centre of Anderlecht to the south, the Birmingham district to the east, the Scheutveld district to the west and the semi-natural site of the Scheutbos to the north-west. The district is crossed by the Chaussée de Ninove / Ninoofsesteenweg running east–west and

81-535: A chapel called Our Lady of Scheut, whose pleasant location, in the middle of a grove, made this place very popular at the time. The 17th and 18th centuries were marked by the wars between the Low Countries and France. During the Nine Years' War , it is from the high ground of Scheut that the bombardment of Brussels of 1695 took place. Together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in

108-616: A special rule to the fratres barbati and exteriores .” “At Cluny Abbey the manual work was relegated mostly to paid servants, but the Carthusians , the Cistercians , the Order of Grandmont , and most subsequent religious orders possessed lay Brothers, to whom they committed their secular cares. In particular, at Grandmont , the complete control of the order's property by the lay brothers led to serious disturbances, and finally to

135-925: A supermarket. The then-curator of the Erasmus House (a museum in Anderlecht devoted to the Dutch humanist writer Erasmus of Rotterdam ) was able to save the carved corbels and keystones at the last minute. These were recently attributed to Rogier van der Weyden . Lay brother Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious brothers , particularly in the Catholic Church , who focused upon manual service and secular matters, and were distinguished from choir monks or friars in that they did not pray in choir, and from clerics , in that they were not in possession of (or preparing for) holy orders . In female religious institutes ,

162-523: Is served by the metro stations Aumale , Jacques Brel , and Gare de l'Ouest/Weststation (Brussels-West Station). In 1356, the Count of Flanders , Louis II , fought against Brussels on the territory of Anderlecht , in the so-called Battle of Scheut , supposedly over a monetary matter. Although he defeated his sister-in-law, the Duchess of Brabant , Joanna , and briefly took her title, she regained it

189-641: The Boxer Rebellion in China, the climate of the nations in which missions were conducted, and persecution of the missionaries and their local congregations. After World War I , Belgium lay devastated, leading the Missionary Fathers of Scheut to establish a center in a safe location from which they could send out their missionaries. As many Belgian refugees at that time were living in London, it

216-550: The Second Vatican Council issued the document Perfectae Caritatis , which called upon all religious institutes to re-examine and renew their charism . As part of the subsequent reforms and experimentation, many of the distinctions between lay and choir religious in terms of dress and spiritual regimen were abolished or mitigated. In many religious institutes, lay and choir religious wear the same habit. Lay brothers were found in many religious orders. Drawn from

243-782: The United States , the congregation is mostly known as Missionhurst. The congregation was founded by Théophile Verbist , who was a diocesan priest in the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels in the mid-19th century. He served as chaplain to the military academy in Brussels and at the same time as a national director of the Pontifical Association of the Holy Childhood . He would lead a group of other Belgian diocesan priests, who became deeply concerned with

270-699: The Belgian Mission in China. Upon seeking ecclesiastical permission, however, they were commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Barnabò to begin their work by founding a seminary in Belgium to supply priests for the beginning mission, laying the foundations of the Scheutveld College, 28 April 1863, in the Field of Scheut near Brussels. As a result, the C.I.C.M. missionaries were also known as Scheutists or Scheut missionaries . In September 1863,

297-668: The English Benedictine lay brothers wore a hood of a different shape from that of the choir monks, and no cowl; a Dominican lay brother would wear a black, instead of a white, scapular. In some orders they were required to recite daily the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary , but usually their labor in the fields (and hence away from the church) prevented them from participating in the Liturgy of

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324-637: The Fathers opened a number of institutions, such the hospital at St-Trudon, Upper Kassai, for those afflicted with sleeping sickness. Today, 780 CICM priests and lay brothers are present in Asian countries (e.g. Mongolia, Indonesia, and Japan), Africa, the Americas, and in Europe. Scheut Scheut ( French: [skøt] ; Dutch: [sxøːt] ) is a district of Anderlecht ,

351-521: The Hours. Lay brothers would instead pray Paters , Aves , and Glorias . Lay sisters were found in most of the orders of women, and their origin, like that of the lay brothers, is to be found in the necessity of providing the choir nuns with more time for the Office and study, as well as creating the opportunity for the illiterate to join the religious life. They, too, wore a habit different from those of

378-609: The abandoned children in China and with the millions in China which, at the time, suffered from widespread poverty. The congregation is named after a religious Marian devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and has sought to expand its missionary work in various countries abroad. With the Convention of Peking occurring, the CICM would begin establishing operations in the country in the early 1860s. In 1862, Verbist founded

405-518: The choir sisters, and their required daily prayers consisted of prayers such as the Little Office or a certain number of Paters. The system of lay sisters seem to have appeared earlier than that of lay brothers, being first recorded in a ninth century hagiography of Saint Denis . In the early medieval period, there was also mention of lay brothers attached to convents of women and of lay sisters attached to monasteries. In both configurations,

432-641: The entire history of Brussels. On 13 November 1792, right after the Battle of Jemappes , General Dumouriez and the French Revolutionary army routed the Austrians there once again. Among the consequences were the disbanding of the canons and Anderlecht being proclaimed an independent municipality by the French. It is also in this district, on the Chaussée de Ninove / Ninoofsesteenweg , that lay

459-448: The equivalent role is the lay sister . Lay brothers were originally created to allow those who were skilled in particular crafts or did not have the required education to study for holy orders to participate in and contribute to the life of a religious order . “In early Western monasticism , there was no distinction between lay and choir religious. The majority of St. Benedict's monks were not clerics, and all performed manual labour,

486-494: The first group of missionaries set forth for Inner Mongolia . In the winter of 1865, Verbist and his four companions arrived in inner Mongolia, which was entrusted to the fledgling congregation by Rome, and immediately began organizing small Christian communities. Three years later, on 23 February 1868, Verbist died of typhoid fever at the age of 44 in Lao-Hu-Kou. The Scheutveld priests and brothers would face dangers such as

513-599: The following year with the help of the Holy Roman Emperor , Charles IV . In 1393, Joanna's charter made Anderlecht a part of Brussels. In 1454, the Carthusian Monastery of Our Lady of Grace was founded in Scheut. Due to the wars of religion , it was abandoned by 1578. It was rebuilt in the 1580s, but the monastery was finally transferred to Brussels. On the site of the Carthusian Monastery stood

540-531: The foundations of the Scheutveld College, on 28 April 1863, by the Catholic priest Theophile Verbist . The congregation of Scheut Missionaries went on to evangelise China , Mongolia , the Philippines , as well as the Congo Free State / Belgian Congo (modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo ). The old chapel was incorporated into the Scheutists' church, but was demolished in 1974 to make way for

567-599: The ruin of the order; whereas the wiser regulations of the Cistercians provided against this danger and formed the model for the later orders. In England, the Benedictines made but slight use of lay brothers, finding the service of paid attendants more convenient.” Nonetheless, they are “mentioned in the customaries of the Abbey of St. Augustine at Canterbury and the Abbey of St. Peter at Westminster .” In 1965,

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594-520: The tilling of fertile farmland. Lay brothers were sometimes distinguished from their brethren by some difference in their habit : for instance, the Cistercian lay brother previously wore a brown tunic , instead of white, with the black scapular ; in choir they wore a large cloak, instead of a cowl ; the Vallombrosan lay brothers wore a cap instead of a hood, and their habit was shorter;

621-464: The word conversi being used only to designate those who had received the habit late in life, to distinguish them from the oblati and nutriti . But, by the beginning of the 11th century, the time devoted to study had greatly increased, thus a larger proportion of the monks were in Holy Orders , even though great numbers of illiterate persons had embraced the religious life. At the same time, it

648-452: The working classes, they were pious and hardworking people, who though unable to achieve the education needed to receive holy orders , were still drawn to religious life and were able to contribute to the order through their skills. Some were skilled in artistic handicrafts, others functioned as administrators of the orders' material assets. In particular, the lay brothers of the Cistercians were skilled in agriculture, and have been credited for

675-468: Was found necessary to regulate the position of the famuli , the hired servants of the monastery, and to include some of these in the monastic family. So in Italy the lay brothers were instituted; and we find similar attempts at organization at the Abbey of St. Benignus at Dijon , under William of Dijon (d. 1031) and Richard of Verdun (d. 1046), while at Hirschau Abbey , Abbot William (d. 1091) gave

702-743: Was made a chaplain in the Belgian army and was a personal advisor to King Leopold III . While he was operating under the code name Leopold Vindictive 200 for the Dutch resistance in 1942, he was captured by the Gestapo and sentenced to death by beheading on 18 October 1943. The congregation would grow in the following years, eventually growing to have a worldwide presence. Originally a Belgian Foundation, CICM has grown into an international religious missionary congregation of men from different races, colors and nationalities. In connection with their missions,

729-604: Was thought that a church in that city would serve the spiritual needs of the Belgian community of London and also become a base for the Order's missionary activities. In 1922, the Church of Our Lady of Hal was established in a hut on Arlington Road in Camden Town while a permanent church was built opposite this site in 1933. During World War II , Father Jozef Raskin , who was a missionary to Inner Mongolia from 1920 to 1934,

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