Averbode Abbey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abbey of Averbode is the ultimate expression of Flemish Baroque.

Averbode Abbey is a Premonstratensian monastery situated near Diest in the Archdiocese of Mechelen in Belgium. It was founded about 1132 by Count Arnold of Losen and continued without interruption till the general suppression of the Belgian monasteries in 1796. The Baroque abbey church was built under abbot Servatius Vaes from 1664 to 1672.

The abbey was re-established in 1834, with the twelve survivors of the previous monastery. As at 1911 the community comprised 82 priests, 20 clerics and novices, and 36 lay brothers, of whom 27 priests and 21 lay brothers were working among the Indians in Brazil, where, at the request of Pope Leo XIII, they had established a missionary monastery at Pirapora in the Diocese of São Paulo, in 1896, and a college at Jaguarao in the Diocese of Sao Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul in 1901. Two priests and three lay brothers from Averbode opened a mission house at Veile in Denmark.

The abbey was burnt to the ground on 9 Dec 1942 but despite the austerities of wartime, was re-built, with the help of Gisquières Abbey. On 13 February 1945 a V-1 hit the new buildings and killed four monks, besides causing further damage.

After the war, the abbey devoted itself increasingly to youth-related work, which remains a special ministry of the present community.