Till the erection of a Dutch CM Province the French influence was very strong. Then slowly a cultural change took place which can be observed in the stained glass windows in the Chapel. Apart from windows with the Vincentian martyrs Perboyre and Clet, we also find windows with the apostle of the Netherlands St. Willibrond and of the Martyrs of Gorcum. The majority of the Dutch teachers came from French seminaries which had been closed.
The programme probably was prescribed by Rome whose official study books were used. Seminaries and higher education were regularly checked by Rome. Teachers more frequently got a university degree and started developing their own curriculum.
Gradually the seminary opened up and students were allowed to start working for construction programs initiated by catholic organizations (Kirche in Not) during the long summer holidays or they became youth leaders in children’s holiday centers in France and Germany. The students had their own auditorium with everything needed to run it properly.
They ran a library geared towards mission territories, they had a special music room, their own bookbinding facilities, photo developing room and duplicating room. There were various study groups such as Vincent studies, Ethiopia studies, Brazil studies.
In 1958 the canonical house ‘Eefde’ was erected, serving as noviciate and philosophicum. Since the number of students had started to decline already, the opening of the house came too late. This decline was general and a solution to reach higher numbers of students were found in the forming of several joint ventures. Later special institutions were created such as the TIE, an institute for theology in Eindhoven of the Augustinians, the Assumptionists, the Spiritan fathers, the Norbertines and the Vincentians. Nothing wrong with the institution, but numbers continued to dwindle and the institution was closed.
Our students left for Nijmegen.