Peter Joseph Triest

Peter Joseph Triest (1760–1836) was a prelate of the Diocese of Ghent. He is known for his foundations of religious communities in this diocese, and has been called "the St. Vincent de Paul of Belgium".

Career Triest was born in Brussels, the ninth of 14 children of Jan and Cecilia Mello Triest. His father was a blacksmith and ironmonger. Petrus was educated at the Jesuit College of St Michael and then at the Latin school in Geel. Saint Dymphna, patron saint of the mentally ill, is particularly honoured in Geel, the site of her martyrdom.

He obtained the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy from the University of Louvain, then entered the Major Seminary, Mechelen, and was ordained priest in 1786 by Cardinal de Frankenberg. As a seminarian he was noted for his devotion to the Sacred Heart and great compassion for the needy and sick. He was made vicar of Hanswijk in Mechelen in 1792. In 1795 Triest caught typhus while tending the sick during an outbreak at the military hospital, but he recovered.

When Belgium was annexed to France in 1795, Triest refused the Republican Oath and went into hiding. For some months, he was only able to administer the sacraments clandestinely. After giving viaticum to the dying wife of a brigadier of gendarmes, he received a private assurance that he would not be arrested.

Triest was made Canon of the Chapter of St Bavo's Cathedral and served on the Almhouses Commission. Triest sent a small group of brothers to Froidmont to work at the psychiatric hospital of Saint Charles. In 1825, they opened a school for deaf boys in Ghent.

Triest died 24 June 1836 in Ghent. He was buried in the parish cemetery at Lovendegem with a modest tombstone. In 1846 the government installed a marble memorial in Brussels Cathedral.

Honours 1807: Honorary Canon of Saint-Bavo. 1818: Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau. 1833: Knight of the Order of Leopold, personally invested by King Leopold I.