Victor Roelens, M. Afr. (21 July 1858 – 5 August 1947) was a Belgian Catholic priest who became Vicar Apostolic of Upper Congo in 1895, and remained the premier bishop in the Congo Free State, then the Belgian Congo, until he retired in 1941. He was a member of the Missionaries of Africa.
Youth
Roelens was born on 21 July 1858 in Ardooie as Victor Theodoor Roelens, the third son of Cesar Roelens and his mother, Rosalia Vervisch. He had two older brothers Emiel and Adolf, and two younger sisters Lucia and Marie-Emily. His father was a gardener at the nearby Chateau des Comtes de Jonghe d'Ardoye. Being rather poor, the family received financial support from the castle lords and could send the three sons to college.
Like his brothers before him, Victor boarded at Sint-Jozef College, Tielt, from the age of 13. Though all classes were in French, he quickly learned the language and came out at the top of his class in his first year. During a winter, whilst playing on a pond in Pittem, he slipped and broke his nose, the altered shape of which would remain with him for the rest of his life. At college he supported the Flemish movement. His dream about going to Africa was initially planted by two White Fathers, Charmetant and Moinet, who visited the college to talk about missionary work in Africa. It was further reinforced when his teacher Adolf Loosvelt volunteered to go to Africa. In his final year ("Rhetorica"), and without anyone knowing, Victor sent three letters to three different religious orders, and eventually made up his mind to join the White Fathers. Victor wanted to leave straight after college but his father insisted that he spend one additional year at the Minor Seminary, Roeselare to study philosophy.
Northern Africa, Europe and Jerusalem
In the autumn of 1880, at the age of 22, Victor joined the novitiate of the White Fathers in Algiers, Algeria. In the presence of then bishop Charles Lavigerie, he graduated and became a member of the order of White Fathers on 23 September 1881. During his time in Algiers, Victor visited Carthage to attend the promotion to cardinalship of Charles Lavigerie. He later went back to Carthage to study for two years at the Collège Saint-Louis. During this time he visited local neighbourhoods to care for the sick, and met his first share of disease as he had stomach problems. Cardinal Lavigerie made Victor a priest on 8 September 1884 in Carthage. In 1884, Victor was appointed a teacher at the Apostolic School for Missionaries in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, near Brussels. Though it was not Victor's first choice to go back to Europe, it allowed him to visit his family. His health recovered. In 1887 we was called back to Carthage as a lecturer, and was also responsible for the operational running of the school. Two years later he was sent to Jeruzalem to teach ecclesiastical history and bible studies in the seminary of Saint Anna. In that same school he later was asked to teach theology, which he had to study intensely as a consequence. During this time his mother passed away. On 31 May 1891 he received a letter of Cardinal Lavigerie with the announcement of his departure to central Africa. This elated him as his long-lasting dream finally came true.