Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 May 1894 — Where Monks and Nuns Are Plentiful. [ARTICLE]

Where Monks and Nuns Are Plentiful.

The religious statistics of Belgium for 1890, which were only published toward the close of last year, give the number of conventual institutions and their inmates in the kingdom—--229 monasteries, with 4,775 monks, and 1,546 convents, with 25,828, sisters and nuns. These have grown during the decade preceding from 218 monasteries, with 4,120 monks, and 1,346 convents, with 21,242 sisters. The increase was not so great as in the period of 1870-’BO, when many of the religious expelled from Prussia settled in Belgium. In the next decade many of these returned, owing to the relaxation of the church laws. But there are still over 80,000 men and women belonging to the various orders, and. taking the population of Belgium at 6,000,000, we find one “religious” monk or sister—to every 200 persons.—{London Guardian