Holy Spirit Orphanage

Last updated April 07, 2019

The Holy Spirit Orphanage (Dutch: Heilige Geest- of Arme Wees- en Kinderhuis^[1]) was an orphanage in the city of Leiden in the Netherlands. It is a Rijksmonument located on Hooglandse Kerkgracht 17B.

Historically, an orphanage was a residential institution, or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and other children who were separated from their biological families. Examples of what would cause a child to be placed in orphanages are when the biological parents were deceased, the biological family was abusive to the child, there was substance abuse or mental illness in the biological home that was detrimental to the child, or the parents had to leave to work elsewhere and were unable or unwilling to take the child. The role of legal responsibility for the support of children whose parent(s) have died or are otherwise unable to provide care differs internationally.

Leiden is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden had a population of 123,856 in August 2017, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration with its suburbs Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten and Zoeterwoude with 206,647 inhabitants. The Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) further includes Katwijk in the agglomeration which makes the total population of the Leiden urban agglomeration 270,879, and in the larger Leiden urban area also Teylingen, Noordwijk, and Noordwijkerhout are included with in total 348,868 inhabitants. Leiden is located on the Oude Rijn, at a distance of some 20 kilometres from The Hague to its south and some 40 km (25 mi) from Amsterdam to its north. The recreational area of the Kaag Lakes (Kagerplassen) lies just to the northeast of Leiden.

The Netherlands is a country located mainly in Northwestern Europe. The European portion of the Netherlands consists of twelve separate provinces that border Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. Together with three island territories in the Caribbean Sea—Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba— it forms a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The official language is Dutch, but a secondary official language in the province of Friesland is West Frisian.

Origin

The so-called ‘Heilige Geest’ (Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit) was the name of a charitable institution, originating in France, which cared for the poor and needy. In the Dutch city of Leiden the ‘Heilige Geest’ was responsible for regular distribution of food, clothing, and small amounts of coin money. It began in Leiden shortly before 1316 with a group of ‘Heilige Geestmeesters’ (Masters of the Holy Spirit) connected with the Leiden parish of Saint Peter.

France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

Orphanage

Around the year 1450, the institution purchased a former mansion on the Breestraat, opposite the street currently known as the Papengracht. Initially the building served as an office and warehouse. In 1491 the building was repurposed and became a home for needy and parentless children. This marked the establishment of the ‘Heilige Geest- of Arme Weeshuis’.

An office is generally a room or other area where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the term "office" may refer to business-related tasks. In law, a company or organization has offices in any place where it has an official presence, even if that presence consists of a storage silo rather than an establishment with desk-and-chair. An office is also an architectural and design phenomenon: ranging from a small office such as a bench in the corner of a small business of extremely small size, through entire floors of buildings, up to and including massive buildings dedicated entirely to one company. In modern terms an office is usually the location where white-collar workers carry out their functions. As per James Stephenson, "Office is that part of business enterprise which is devoted to the direction and co-ordination of its various activities."

A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, towns or villages.

Soon, the number of children housed in the orphanage exceeded capacity, forcing the Heilige Geestmeesters to look for a larger building. A new accommodation was found in 1583 in the building of the Vrouwengasthuis (woman’s hospital) on the Hooglandsekerkgracht. The Heilige Geest Orphanage would remain at this location for almost four centuries.

The building complex would undergo three major renovations in this period. The most important of these took place between 1774 and 1778. The merging of the nearby Arme Kinderhuis (Poor Children’s Home) with the Heilige Geest Orphanage necessitated this renovation. The names of the respective institutions were also joined in the unwieldy designation ‘Heilige Geest- of Arme Wees en Kinderhuis’. It was by this name that the orphanage was known well into the twentieth century.

Renovation is the process of improving a broken, damaged, or outdated structure. Renovations are typically either commercial or residential. Additionally, renovation can refer to making something new, or bringing something back to life and can apply in social contexts. For example, a community can be renovated if it is strengthened and revived.

Present day

The Heilige Geest Orphanage remained on the Hooglandsekerkgracht until 1961, still carrying out its mission to care for Leiden’s poor and needy children. The institution became a foundation in 1979 now known as ‘Stichting Heilige Geest- of Arme Wees- en Kinderhuis te Leiden’, caring for the poor and destitute youth in a wider sense. In 1968 the building became a Rijksmonument, a Dutch national heritage site.

A foundation is a legal category of nonprofit organization that will typically either donate funds to and support other organizations, or provide the source of funding for its own charitable purposes. Foundations incorporate public foundations to pool funds and private foundations who are typically endowed by an individual or family.

A rijksmonument is a national heritage site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE) acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

At the end of the twentieth century, to further promote the study of its history, the foundation commissioned a new inventory of the archives of the Heilige Geest Orphanage, which dates back to the fourteenth century, as well as a study of the building history and the realization of the score of the Music for Christmas 1796 composed by Christian Friedrich Ruppe for the mixed youth choir of the orphanage.

An archive is an accumulation of historical records or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of that person or organization. Professional archivists and historians generally understand archives to be records that have been naturally and necessarily generated as a product of regular legal, commercial, administrative, or social activities. They have been metaphorically defined as "the secretions of an organism", and are distinguished from documents that have been consciously written or created to communicate a particular message to posterity.

The Mixed youth choir Leiden orphanage was the choir of the Heilige Geest- of Arme Wees- en Kinderhuis in the city of Leiden in the Netherlands between 1796 and 1802. It was the first mixed youth choir in Western Europe.

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References

Notes

↑ Kwakkel, Erik (24 April 2015). "Rare Medieval Name Tags". Medievalbooks (in Dutch). Retrieved 24 April 2015.

Bibliography

P.J. Blok, Geschiedenis eener Hollandsche stad, Den Haag, 1912, 1916
D.E.H. de Boer, ‘Te vongelinc geleit. Sociale en economische problemen in Leiden aan het eind van de middeleeuwen’, in: Leidse facetten. Tien studies over Leidse geschiedenis, Zwolle, 1982, p. 7-2
J.F. Dröge, ‘Waar de wezen in de gevel staan’. De bouwgeschiedenis van het Heilige Geest- of Arme Wees- en Kinderhuis aan de Hooglandsekerkgracht te Leiden, Leiden, 1990. ISBN 90-9003850-7
S.W.M.A. den Haan, Inventaris van het archief van het Heilige Geest- of Arme Wees- en Kinderhuis te Leiden 1334-1979, Leiden, 1990 (preface). ISBN 90-9003851-5
Chr. Ligtenberg, De armezorg te Leiden tot het einde van de 16e eeuw, Den Haag, 1908
L.G. L[e] P[oole], Catalogus van de stukken en boeken in het archief van het Heilige Geest- of Arme Wees- en Kinderhuis te Leiden, Leiden, 1902 (preface)

Dutch Rijksmonument 24895

Coordinates: 52°09′32.7″N4°29′39″E / 52.159083°N 4.49417°E / 52.159083; 4.49417

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[kwakkel-1] Kwakkel, Erik (24 April 2015). "Rare Medieval Name Tags". Medievalbooks (in Dutch). Retrieved 24 April 2015.