Groenendael Priory

Groenendael Priory (French: Prieuré de Groenendael; Dutch: priorij van Groenendaal; meaning, "green valley"; alternate, Gruenendale) is located in the Forest of Soignes in the municipality of Hoeilaart in the Flemish Brabant, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southeast of Brussels, Belgium.

Duchesse Jeane of Brabant had allotted the forest land to the Priory and also to many other monasteries in the region. In 1304, an old shooting lodge of Jean II was given to a hermit on condition that after he died, it would go to another religious person who was serving God.

Following this, a community was established at the site around 1343 by three canons who had left St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels seeking space outside the city, John of Ruysbroeck, Jan Hinckaert and Vrank van Coudenberg, which on 13 March 1349 became formalised as a monastery of Augustinian canons. Coudenberg became the first provost and Ruysbroeck the first prior. Their association with the canonical order of St. Augustine was very loose, despite attempts by the Augustinian abbey of Abbey of St. Victor, Paris. Their revenue included selling wood, as well as bequests an legacies. (It is possible that the cause of Ruysbroeck’s leaving Brussels was that he was persecuted for his attack on a woman known as Bloemardinne who was propagating false tenets in Netherlands; he had countered it with his own set of pamphlets.)

The monastery became famous during the late fourteenth century largely on account of Ruysbroeck’s reputation as a spiritual guide and writer, with many people travelling to Groenendaal to visit him. After Ruysbroeck’s death in 1381, his relics were preserved at the monastery.

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