By 1841, the community had grown beyond the space available in the little house on Ezelstraat; with a loan from a sympathetic banker, Ryken purchased a large estate in a neighboring section of Bruges called "Het Walletje", for the moat that surrounded it. A boys' sodality was opened at Het Walletje, followed shortly by a primary school in the same place; the work of catechizing was taken up at the Church of Notre-Dame, and some attention was given to the training of deaf-mutes. The brothers' first grammar school was opened at Bruges in 1844 and in the following year a second school was established. The Xaverian Brothers began to attract candidates from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, England, Ireland and France.