Pastorie | De Rips

De Rips. Majestic presbytery built at the time of the founding of the village of De Rips.

This majestic mansion, a municipal monument, shows how much prestige the pastor still had in 1920 (the year of construction). This presbytery belonged to a church built next to it, which has unfortunately been demolished. Both buildings stood, and the rectory stands, on a very spacious lot. That space is characteristic in a reclamation village, where space was one of the few things they did have. The houses scattered on the moor where the village of De Rips is now located had always belonged to the parish of Milheeze in the past. There was resistance from Bakel and Milheeze to the foundation of a new village. But the Heidemaatschappij that carried out large-scale reclamations in the vicinity of De Rips such as in the nearby nature of the Stippelberg was, on the contrary, fiercely in favor. Many people from all over the country, including many Protestants came to the Peel to work on the reclamations. The people from the Heath Society who pushed most strongly for a new village were Superintendent Bellemakers and Inspector Houtzagers. They commissioned designs and pushed the Heath Society to concentrate and build houses for their workers.

Bellemakers himself went to the Priests of the Sacred Heart to establish a parish and keep De Rips Catholic as much as possible. They were enthusiastic. In 1920 a parish of their own was founded after much urging, also from the Priests of the Sacred Heart. Among other things, they received money for this from the Dutch Heath Society. The parish is dedicated to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. She was a French nun in the 17th century who did much to raise awareness of the Sacred Heart devotion. Coincidentally, she was also canonized in 1920. The choice of this patron saint was probably based on the preference of the parish priest, Father Trines. Indeed, this saint fits into the tradition of his order, known in full as the Priestly Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Sacred Heart devotion was on the rise around 1920 and focused on building a Catholic refuge from the non-Catholic outside world. Many social and charitable measures were part of this goal. 

During this time, a Catholic elementary school was also opened in De Rips. Indeed, that was one of Father Trines' demands for the creation of a new parish, for which he and his fellow parishioners had raised funds. Without a school and connecting road, he predicted, the village would not get off the ground and the parish was meaningless. He only received permission when Bellemakers arranged with the Protestant landowners that Protestant children could also attend elementary school and not have to participate in religious education. Father Trines became the first pastor and he lived in this rectory with three more fathers of his order even before it was completed. Shortly after the first emergency church was opened, a permanent general practitioner was also assigned to De Rips who traveled the long distances to the new village by motorcycle. The Deurne-Oploo connecting road and the layout of the village center also took shape at that time. Before the foundation of the parish, De Rips was a collection of huts and scattered farms, now it gradually became a real village.

Sources:

H. Braks, P. van Delft, 75 years Rips: 1921-1996, 1996, Drukkerij De Vrije, Oploo

P.H.M. Thissen, Heide ontginning en modernisering: In het bijzonder in drie Brabantse Peelgemeenten 1850-1940, Uitgeverij Matrijs, 1993