Ode to Zuster Lioba Kandelaar (Augustines van Sint Monica) | In the midst of life

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Watching “The Other Side of Amsterdam,” I heard a name from my childhood: Sister Candler. At home we were definitely not Catholic, but my grandmother and mother both worked as maternity nurses. Also at the convent De Stad Gods in Hilversum, where the sisters of Monnikenberg took in 'fallen girls'; unmarried pregnant girls....

The Congregation of the Augustinians of St. Monica was founded in Utrecht in 1934 by the Augustinian Sebastianus van Nuenen. One of the purposes of the order was to support the women of poor families in the district during the crisis years with their household chores.

You chose a religious life, but as Augustines, you and your fellow sisters were socially active outside the convent, in education, in family care. Your order is contemplative/active I read online. Augustine's adage “Just be there for God and people” was your guiding principle. You rode your neighborhood rounds through Hilversum on your black ladies' bicycle with huge panniers. Dressed in black in winter and white in summer.

You did not stay in Hilversum. You were called to the Amsterdam convent of your order: Maria's Visitation. Of course you had taken the vow of obedience. But if I remember correctly, you left the monastery, “your” Hilversum families and the boxer dogs you loved with pain in your heart. Back then, you could not have imagined that you would grow into a household name on the Red Light District.

The convent Maria's visit was located in an old textile factory in the Warmoesstraat that “the sisters” had moved into in 1952. Sisters were also active in education in Amsterdam. They taught at the St. Antoniusschool on the Kromboomsloot. But with a convent in the middle of the “red light district,” the sisters shifted their scope to “girls and women walking the streets”: homeless women, prostitutes and women who wanted to escape an abusive home situation. 'Stay-at-home houses' would be years away. Also in Amsterdam, unmarried pregnant girls could go to the sisters. In the “Meisjesstad” shelter, they could get their stories straight and look to the future.

You and your sisters did more labor of love. On the website of Ons Amsterdam I read:

“Led by the legendary Sister Lioba Kandelaar, who was described as 'cordial but also strict,' the sisters distributed bread that had been left over from the previous day in bakeries here and there in the neighborhood.

Homeless people lined up in a long line at the convent at the end of the morning for this daily bread distribution. One hundred hungry people was no exception. The sisters also had an evening shelter, a coffee house.

Drug pastor Ricus Dullaert, in “The Other Side of Amsterdam,” calls you the mother of the homeless in the Red Light District. When he met you in 1990, you had been working “in the middle of life” for 30 years. Given his stature, you appointed theology student Ricus your bouncer in the coffeehouse. And he remained so for 13 years.

Amsterdam in the 70s, 80s and 90s meant addicts, heroin whores, crime, no go areas, AIDS epidemic. You and your fellow sisters must have had your hands full.

Entering the convent no longer fit the times. On February 1, 2010, the last five sisters left and the convent on Warmoesstraat became a Dirk van den Broek supermarket.  

You enjoyed your last years of life in Someren, in a special care home for religious. Did you look back on your life? Because what a life!

It is probably inappropriate to praise what you did for the needy in the heart of Amsterdam. But I don't know the Catholic codes. I think you deserve an ode. And your fellow sisters from your monastic community Augustinians of St. Monica as well, of course.

SOURCES

https://onsamsterdam.nl/artikelen/zusters-augustinessen-voor-god-en-de-mensen

'The Other Side of Amsterdam,' Saturday, Oct. 26 and Nov. 2, 10:10 p.m. KRO-NCRV on NPO 2

https://kro-ncrv.nl/programmas/de-andere-kant-van-amsterdam

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zusters_Augustinessen_van_Sint-Monica

https://stadsgids.nl/bedrijf/stg-zrs-augustinessen-van-st-monica/