Geneviève de Limon Triest was the second of six children. She is known as the last Grand Dame of the Princely Béguinage of La Vigne in Bruges, the city where she was born. Her aristocratic family intended her for a religious life and enrolled her in the boarding school of the Dames du Sacre-Coeur in Jette (a municipality in the Brussels region).
When it came to choosing a community of life, after unsuccessful applications to the Sisters of Saint Vincent de Paul and the Benedictines of Maredret, finally the Beguinage of Bruges accepted her in 1896.
“At that time, the Beguines of Bruges came from aristocratic families or the city’s upper middle class” (p. 39).
While in the 15th century the Béguinage numbered 150 Béguines, the Grand Dame Geneviève found herself at the head of an aging community of about ten women. Concerned about preventing the community from dying out, she found a dynamic ally in Rodolphe Hoornaert, the newly appointed parish priest of the béguinage, later a future canon, and in the monks of the Abbey of Saint-André.
Thus, a vast recruitment campaign was launched, culminating in the 700th anniversary of the béguinage in 1925. However, the results fell short of expectations.
Then came the idea of a different location: the béguinage would change its status and welcome French nuns from the Congregation of Saint-Benoît de Nîmes. In 1927, a new congregation Filles de l’Église (Daughters of the Church) was born from the merger of the two. Geneviève became the monastery’s first prioress, but she continued to be called “Madame,” as she had been for 700 years. However, “she does not live among the community, but inhabits, with her servant, a house within the grounds of the béguinage” (p. 42).
After a period of relation tensions, and after the Second World War, the new community became a center for liturgical study and reform. In 1949, the new congregation “Daughters of the Church” was recognized by the Vatican and in 1962 by the Benedictine order. It was joined by women from various European countries.
To repair the pitiful state of the béguinage, the non-profit organization Béguinage princier de la Vigne was founded in 1924, of which Geneviève became president.
In the subsequent changes, part of the béguinage was transformed into a proper monastery. In 1935, Abbot Hoornaert obtained a 99-year lease from the Public Assistance. The architects (Joseph and his son Luc Viérin) responsible for the renovation built “a monastery with a cloister, chapter house, library, refectory, kitchens, cells…” (p. 45). In 1939, the beguinage was recognized as a protected site and could thus benefit from City subsidies.
On October 4, 1947, Geneviève de Limon Triest celebrated her golden jubilee. In her jubilee booklet one reads: “Outside she leads her flock, inside God leads her.” In 1955, she passed the baton to Prioress Geneviève de Vanier. She died in 1971 and was buried in the plot reserved for nuns at the Centrale Begraafplaats in Bruges.
Source : Benoit Kervyn de Volkaerbeke, Geneviève de LimonTriest, figure incontournable di Béguinage princier de la Vigne à Bruges, dans Bulletin de la noblesse du Royaume de Belgique, n.323, juillet 2025
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