Strategic change at the Hospital Saint-Jacques at Le Roeulx (Belgium), from the account book of Sister Magdelaine Delcourt

Abstract

Prior to going on Crusade in 1202, Baldwin, bailiff of Le Roeulx, gave his house and associated income to found a hospital in the hope of saving his immortal soul. The original objective of the hospital was to sustain the poor and pilgrims (especially those undertaking the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain (the Camino)). However, few pilgrims availed themselves of its facilities. The mission was then revised to look after the poor and to shelter the sick. By the seventeenth century augustine sisters of Ath administered the hospital. Sister Magdelaine Delcourt, the nun in charge, left us an account and information, covering the period 1625 to 1627. This gives a vivid picture of the financial and other affairs of the organisation for that period. The archaic nature of this record makes it largely inaccessible to the modern reader: this article renders it legible to current researchers.