frater Andreas Engels:frater Andreas - Fraters - CMM Brothers

Almost saints
overflowed with tenderness. The way he told me the news and the
heartfelt manner in which he tried to comfort me, stayed with me
as the memory of a soft balm, which was poured over my emotional
soul.
In those days there were several duty masters who stood in for
Brother Andreas from time to time. Some of them were not well
suited to the job, which was no surprise, because no matter how
much people may look down on the post of duty master, it re-
After five years of humanities, what a pleasure it was for him to be
46 quires a considerable amount of tact and character insight to keep
able to offer the congregation its first born! The number had 47
control over such a troop of youngsters in their awkward years.
dwindled from twelve to six (one had slipped from his care
No matter how good their understanding, they are always full of
through death during his student years at Ruwenberg), but these
mischief and inclined to run riot at every opportunity. I am sure
six were and remained very dear to him. This is where my relation-
that he had reason to complain about more than one duty master,
ship with Brother Andreas ends. We stayed in Tilburg; he was
who was either too lenient or too strict, but he never said a word
made responsible for a new class of priest students at Ruwenberg.
in our presence, lest it would diminish the respect we should have
for them. On the contrary, he knew how to extol their virtue to
After that I hardly ever saw him, as our paths diverged.
such an extent that we started looking upon some of them as almost
saints. As a result, when we became their fellow brothers,
some were greatly disappointing. We had learned to look at them
in the light Brother Andreas shone on them, but in reality they
were different.
Rich vein
Tenderness
Nothing really stands out in my memory from those days. Everything
flowed along without fuss or drama. Of course there were
disappointments, perhaps on both sides, but nothing special
happened, otherwise it would have made a deeper impression on
me. Once, during my studies, my mother was seriously ill. I was
surprised that the man I had thought without compassion, now
The next time our paths crossed, although it was only on paper,
was when I was rector in Grave and had the opportunity to help
take over and edit De Engelbewaarder (The Guardian Angel). This
very popular children’s magazine had started life four years ear lier
in Maastricht at the Saint Paul’s print works. It found no success
until it was sold in 1892 for the formidable price of one Dutch
guilder to Mr Jozef Witlox in Grave, where it was to be edited from
then on. The Roman Catholic boys orphanage in Tilburg was to
be responsible for printing and running the magazine. For the
next ten years, however, its net profit was donated to the blind
boys institute in Grave. The children’s magazine received help
from all sides in the form of contributions. One of the first to