HolyUnionSisters.org
Title
HOLY UNION SISTERS
Description
If you are going to Lecelles, birthplace of Jean-Baptist Debrabant, you had better have a good road map, unless you are from “le Nord” or, better still, from Valenciennes; the village of Lecelles does not appear in any atlas! Careful research would reveal that Lecelles is near Tournai, close to the Belgian border, and only a short distance from Saint Armand-les- Eaux. The famous tower in Saint Armand is the last trace of a large abbey, founded in 647 and, like so many others, destroyed during the French Revolution. Lecelles may take its name from the Latin cella; during the Middle Ages, cella indicated a small monastery dependent on a larger, more important one. Perhaps the village itself was once inhabited by a small group of monks from the monastery who lived on land belonging to it.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Lecelles, situated along the Elne river and in the middle of French Flanders, had only a few hundred inhabitants. The countryside was given over to agriculture and the inhabitants of Lecelles were mainly farm folk. The times were troubled. Then, as in our century, Flanders was crossed again and again by armies on the march. Troops, first of the Revolution, then of the Empire, probably passed through Lecelles on many occasions. Although we do not know, we can suppose the peasants were heavily taxed by the armies and their fields plundered.
It was here that, on October 13, 1801, Jean-Baptiste Debrabant, was born and baptized, the fourth child of Michel-Francois Debrabant and Marie-Auguste Quensier, both from simple farm families. Small landholders, the family had a few horses for transport and field work. Michel-Francois Debrabant, however, was able to sign his name to public documents, a rarity in those days when most farmers could sign only an x.
Contact
- Holy Union Sisters
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- Milton MA
- United States 02186
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- +1.4017236400
