Yesterday at 3:30 PM • Edited yesterday at 5:37 PM
There were only seven of them left. And the headquarters of the brothers in Tilburg was very large. An untenable situation and that is why the brothers are moving. Because the house is full of things, the brothers decided to have a sale. And it happened, people queued for two hours this weekend to get their hands on all the special paintings and exotic statues.
On Sunday there was no line, but still a hustle and bustle. A Tilburg resident wraps snow-white Christmas figures in newspaper: “I think they are so nice and extra special because they come from this house. I have always known it and my daughter still worked there. I think the Christmas figures could have been painted by the brothers.”
Because the brothers were certainly artistic. Drawings and paintings are for sale in the basement, often work by the brothers themselves. There are also statues and pots from all over the world. The brothers were founded to provide education to poor children. They worked in distant lands.
“More than two years of decluttering.”
Not only did many items from abroad end up in the ‘Generalate’ of the brothers in Tilburg. Many items also came from other houses in the Netherlands that were closed. Result: a huge house chock full of people. The brothers spent more than two years ‘decluttering’.
Another visitor makes his move with a huge stack of books. “They are about the history of Catholicism. I am very pleased that I have found another booklet written by the founder of the brothers, Joannes Zwijsen.”
In the basement, where the brothers’ archive once was, there are tables with items from rosaries to Christmas baubles, from ashtrays to wine glasses.
A huge pile of books for this buyer.
Brother Ad de Kok walks around with mixed feelings. The brothers lived in the current building for 65 years. De Kok himself also lived there. “This house has become too big and too expensive for us. It became increasingly vacant.”
The building will become an apartment complex. That was not De Kok’s preference. He would have preferred if another good-doer had come in. “But it is, the way it is.”
De Kok is very attached to the chapel: “It is not allowed to be demolished, so fortunately it will continue to exist and will become a community space.”
The brother thinks that a few tears will be shed when the chapel is officially withdrawn from service. “A statue was sold, where I sat as a seventeen-year-old brother. But also the building itself, it is a beautiful building.”
“It’s going to do a good job.”
Brother Andreas is also buried in the chapel. A special brother, according to De Kok, because he led a very simple life. Efforts are underway to have this brother canonized. “We are going to rebury him in Vught. We have a cemetery there and a chapel is being built for him there.”
The proceeds from the sale go to the work of the brothers, such as a technical school in Africa, which needs new machines. “It’s going to do a good job.”
