Monastery St. Agnetenberg

To combat Protestantism, three Dominican sisters arrived in Sittard in 1649 from the Engelendael convent in Bruges with the mission to establish a monastery. They were Mother Superior Maria Sibylla Bronckhorst, originally from Kampen (who had been married to a patrician from Zwolle), her assistant, the Antwerp sister Ida Crokx, and a novice, Willemken van Limet, from Waalwijk, who was the first lay sister in Sittard to be dressed in the order's habit. They took residence in two medieval buildings: the Voogdij and Dobbelsteinporte. The Voogdij was the house of the city guardian, an official of the Duke of Guelders. Dobbelsteinporte was the refuge house (place of refuge within the city walls) of the noble family of the same name.
The sisters named their new monastery "St. Agnetenberg" after the patroness St. Agnes of Montepulciano, the same name as the Zwolle convent to which Mother Bronckhorst had cherished memories. The Dominican sisters built the monastery in a square shape around the courtyard. The year 1662 is inscribed in wall anchors on the inner wall of the courtyard. The monastery church was built last of the four sides in 1699. In the meantime, great misfortune befell the city and the monastery. The French armies captured Sittard and burned the city in 1677. Because rumors spread that treasures were hidden in the monastery, it was looted and thoroughly destroyed by the French. More than a hundred years later, the French again brought disaster to the monastery. As the sisters refused to take an oath on the new French constitution, St. Agnetenberg was closed in 1801. The sisters had to lay aside their habits and return to the secular world. Most continued to live a religious life as private individuals. A detailed inventory was made. Pastor Page from Limbricht acquired the organ. Other items were bought by well-to-do citizens of the city to be returned later. In 1803, the monastery was purchased with the cooperation of the French prefect by the Poor Administration to house the needy. In 1831, the city school and a family of teachers were established there.

The miraculous statue "Salvation of the Sick" When the first Dominican sisters from Bruges moved to Sittard, they brought a small wooden statue of Mary with them. Mary holds the child Jesus in her right arm, who holds the globe in his hand. It was said that the statue was the salvation of the Dominican sisters in the disastrous year of 1677 in Sittard. When this was known, pilgrims came from far and wide, even entire processions, especially on Saturdays and holidays. Often, the monastery church could not accommodate the devout influx. The Bishop of Liège granted indulgences. Various healings of the sick, "Salvation of the Sick," as well as blind and lame individuals, are recorded in the memory book of St. Agnetenberg. Thus, the honorary title "Salvation of the Sick" arose. When the sisters had to leave the monastery during the French period (1801), the statue was left behind in the monastery church. To restore Saturday devotion, the pastor of the Great Church moved the statue to his church. It is said that the next day the statue was back in its old place in the church of St. Agnetenberg. This was seen as a sign. A grand ceremony was organized, and in a solemn procession, in which all of Sittard participated, the statue was brought to the Great Church. The statue, 19 cm tall, stands in a glass case on the Mary altar of the Great or St. Peter's Church.

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